Aliens: Tales Of The Fall
by Murfy426
Summary: A collection of short stories to tie into the re-release of Aliens: Home.
1. Innocence

**Innocence**

Shanghai was the front page news that no one knew anything about, after a catastrophic blast inside the city and the initial reports of a contagion, the country became an information dead zone. With my lucky stars though I negotiated my way into being the only reporter to get eyes on the situation on the ground.

I flew to the city thinking this story would be great for my career. I flew there imagining the tabloids clawing for my words like hungry animals. That my first hand account would be pure gold, this story would set me up for life.

Jesus Christ I was so wrong.

Looking back on it now forty years later I should've taken the hint the second I landed in Shanghai, I should've just fled off world before the planetary quarantine.

I used my only favours in the Chinese government to catch an army resupply ship to the city. The troop carrier's three hundred seats were full of young brave men. It's cargo hold where I resided held another three hundred soldiers, many were praying desperately, a lot of them looked like young reservists or 'weekend warriors' as the full time military called them.

The cold, high-roofed cargo hold stunk of perspiration and fear, a constant chant of whispers and soldiers double checking their equipment for the tenth time hung in my ears. One of the soldiers beside me gazed tenderly at a photo of a young woman holding a toddler no older than two. He swiftly tucked the photo back under his vest as a young officer walked by confidently, his uniform immaculate without the sweat stains carried by the enlisted troops under him. He stopped by the young soldier and peered down at him with his hand extended, reluctantly the private relinquished the photo to his commander who gazed at it blankly. "If we fail here, they will die. Die for them." The officer spoke with the barest hint of sympathy. Before he turned away I asked him. "Lieutenant, David Crook, I'm a report..."

"My C.O informed me of your presence on the ship and I have no time for suicidal journalists with big pockets."

"Lieutenant I was told this was a resupply ship? Are you willing to comment on what's happening in the city?"

"We are the supplies sir and all I'll tell you is that you should've run. Only a miracle is gonna keep you alive over the next few days."

That comment filled me with dread but I won't lie I was too rebellious and determined to back down from this. Looking back on this moment I envy the young's unwavering sense of immortality.

I began to feel the ship slow down through my boots as klaxons began to erratically light the cargo bay in strobes of hazard yellow. The three hundred soldiers raised themselves in unison as I nervously collected myself and my gear. I could feel the atmosphere change as a tide of adrenaline washed over me and a fleeting sense of selfish safety among all these trained soldiers. With a high pitched hum the cargo ramp slowly lowered, meter by meter the day's dying sun threw the last of it's light to blind me as my eyes struggled to adjust for a few brief moments.

Before my vision returned fully I was corralled forward by the troops behind me as we disembarked with an anxious haste. No matter how hard I tried I struggled to deal with crowds of people no matter how 'organised' they were and I moved quickly to the side to escape the march. Once free I allowed myself a moment to breathe in the space as the sounds assaulted me from close by and far in the distance

I'd covered warzones before and the sounds of gunfire always seemed to follow a rhythm, halting to maintain accuracy, cool the weapon or to reload. The sound from the city outskirts a few miles from me however was a near constant droning storm coating the atmosphere around me with a constant wavelength or danger. We had landed in what must have been a park before the military moved in, the feeling of grass and soft earth under my boots was a rare feeling. Looking around me though most of the grass was gone. Either ripped up along with the hundreds of trees that were once rooted here or churned under hundreds of feet into the slick mud that near turned this field into a marsh. Remnants of flower beds littered the flat ground, their once beautiful colours now flattened and drowned out of existence by the rows of supply ships near sinking into the mud with their own weight.

A convoy of trucks weeded their way through the crowds of personnel before parking themselves just outside the ships' access ramps including mine. Too many to count I watched motionless at the flatbeds closest to me, their cargo was caged like animals. To this day the sight still saddens and horrifies me.

The cages were filled with civilians near climbing on top of each other without order or prejudice to age or gender, desperately trying to escape their mobile prison, their screams wrenched at my heart as soldiers exited the flatbeds and hesitantly prepared to open the cages. The second they were unlocked the civilians gushed out of the cages like an opened artery, falling harshly into the wet mud as those just behind landed on top of them. After a few seconds some gained purchase to raise themselves up and run, throughout all of this the gunfire from the Wall was drowned out by sounds more animalistic than human. I could do nothing but watch as the mob ran chaotically towards the ship, in a stampede of panic, they trampled over each other without care, the soldiers didn't seem to care less, they had bigger problems.

I made eye contact with a man for a split second as he trampled a young woman, desperate to reach the ship with his child in his arms and recoiled at the haunted, primal look in his eyes. The majority of the crowd's clothes were torn and dirtied beyond salvation with the only colours I could see being mud or blood with the lingering scent of human waste breezing past my nostrils.

Once they were in the ship the ramps started to raise and a chilling choir of terror and despair competed with the firing of the ships' engines until the ramps finally clamped shut and they departed to a destination unknown leaving the muddied wasteland and myself with a haunting emptiness.

I stood watching the ships fly into the forgotten distance until I saw a small boy walk in front of me, no older than ten walking alone hopelessly into the empty field. He seemed lost in a state of limbo, clutching a useless toy gun, his innocence clearly lost to whatever horrors he had seen back in the city.

"Hey kid!" I stopped him with my hand, upon closer look he was emaciated, I could feel his bones poking through his skin and clothes. "Where's your parents?"

He simply swung his head from side to side, I knelt down, trying in vain to wipe dried blood from his cheek which came away in crumbles that fell effortlessly from my fingers, a few of the boy's teeth were missing too.

I heard my name being shouted by a soldier waving at me to approach him, standing with a weary looking squad beside a battered APC. I lifted the boy to my hip near effortlessly as I walked swiftly towards them. As I drew closer to the soldiers, little alarming details caught my eye, their exhausted posture a stark contrast to the straight-backed troops i flew in with as well as their stained and torn uniforms. Their body armour was littered with scratch marks penetrating the protective metal. The APC was more alarming with deep stretches of armour designed to resist bullets and explosives gouged out leaving gaps a few inches deep. Every now and then there were pieces of armour that looked almost melted away.

"David Crook?" The Sergeant asked as my eyes followed the lit cigarette bouncing in his lips.

"Yeah!"

"I'm Sergeant Takumi. Your riding in with me and my boys then we'll take you to our C.O." He looked at the child with the briefest hint of disdain. "Did he come in with the refugee trucks?"

"Yes, do you have any spare food? He doesn't look like he's eaten in days." I asked without any belief they would provide any.

Proving me wrong a young private with a bandaged eye rustled an energy bar out of his trousers and handed it to the boy who almost tore it out his hand and ripped the wrapping in a starved frenzy before devouring it in a few heartbeats.

"Jesus" I exclaimed.

"I know," The Sergeant muttered as he hawked and spat before continuing to smoke. "Fucking animals in those camps are merciless when it comes to the food. We're leaving in five, we cant leave him out here alone, there's MRE's in the sledge he can have. Doubt he'll survive another evac rotation without the calories." Hastily the Sergeant picked out another cigarette, looking at me he motioned it towards me. "Need a smoke before we leave?"

"No thank you. I quit a few years ago."

"That'll change before the end of tonight I guarantee you. You armed?"

"I'm a journalist sergeant, I'm here to report not to fight." I was shocked, never in my time being attached to a military element had I been asked to carry a firearm.

"Cheng give him your sidearm." The Sergeant turned towards the half blinded Private.

"No way Sarge!" Cheng protested.

"Sergeant I'm not fighting! If that's what you expect of me I'm gone!" I knew there was no way for me to go back but I was determined.

"Shut it Cheng!" Takumi wrestled the pistol from Cheng's holster. "You can get another one from the dead pile back at the Wall." He growled before he stormed towards me. Forcing cold, handheld death into my hands before grabbing my collar to pull me so close we were nearly nose to nose.

"Now you listen and you listen real close civvie, hell is real and your coming with us to it's fucking gates. The only reason I'm taking you there is to hand you off to the Captain so my family gets a flight off world. Once that's done I couldn't give two shits about you, once they get over the Wall again and trust me they will, if your taken your gonna leave one round for yourself. Got it!"

I could smell the tobacco coming from his breath as he spat those words at me, his grip tightening my collar to where it near strangled me but I held my eyes to his threatening glare. With everything I'd seen since I landed my nerves were already close to being fried and despite being a reporter I never took well to people putting there hands on me. The pistol was still cold in my hands and without thinking about it I pressed it into Takumi's thigh.

I could see a subtle change in his eyes and felt his grip on my collar loosen as I spoke with my voice low enough so his comrades couldn't hear or see this development. "Sergeant I couldn't give two shits about you either and if you don't take your fucking hand off me I'll use this on you."

Takumi simply grinned. "You got balls civvie I'll give you that, lets go." He fully released me from his grasp and waved a hand motion to his comrades to enter the APC.

I picked up the boy, who had turned into a motionless husk after consuming the energy bar and followed inside, seating him beside me at the rear of the vehicle as the engine rumbled to life behind us and we began to speed towards the Wall. Inside the windowless APC I couldn't see the rows of lifeless apartment towers that stretched throughout the entirety of the district of Hangzou after the swift and merciless evacuation. There was little to no chatter for the squad for a majority for the journey the only audible stimuli was the military communications coming through the vehicle's radio which was frequently interrupted by an uncomfortable static. From what I could gather things seemed quiet at the Wall for now.

To his credit Takumi handed the kid an MRE not long after we set off and despite being designed to keep a healthy soldier on they're feet for 24 hours or more he devoured it without pause, no matter how many times I tried to slow him down. The last thing I wanted was for him to be sick and be weaker than he already was. I couldn't help but notice the numerous empty magazines and the pungent human stink emanating from the squad, god knows the last time they had the chance to take a shower. Looking closer I could see the heavy weariness that they wore on their faces, the ones that were awake anyway as I could only see Takumi, Chang and another with their eyes open.

The radio came alive with screams and gunfire sounding in the distance. "A carrier just birthed in pen seven, we need incinerators here now!"

Another voice rung with authority. "This is Captain Zhu roger that, burners are on the way. Ramparts prepare for possible attack!"

"Those scanners seriously need to slow down and be more thorough." Takumi loaded and cocked his rifle. The sound of the rifle's ejection port slamming shut woke the rest of the squad from their feather light sleep. " Ready up. We're five minutes out and they've got a burster in one of the pens. You know what that means."

All of this meant nothing without understanding what was really happening in the city. "Seriously Sergeant What the hell is going on here?"

"We're under attack."

"By who? The Uni's haven't made a move in nearly a decade." Apart from the separatists I couldn't think of anyone who would have the audacity or resources to hit Earth.

That question got me an uncomfortable laugh from Takumi. "I'd rather be fighting the entire Uni fleet than these things, I dunno what they are, I've never seen anything like them in my life."

"They're demons." A young private pointed out.

Cheng spat blood onto the floor. "More like dragons. Taller than any man and they're as black as the void. They got no eyes, just teeth and claws that look like they were shaped from steel. He paused to spit out another thick wad of bloodied phlegm before reaching inside his mouth for a few seconds, with a sharp tug he pulled out a single tooth before tossing it. "You seen those scars on the side of the APC, a single one of them rushed us when we were extracting from perimeter duty."

I didn't quite believe what I was hearing, the human race had explored and surveyed hundreds of worlds and the worst species we ever encountered were insectoid or predators no bigger than dogs. "Where did they come from? An asteroid? Is that what brought down the Gatekeeper?"

"Maybe the commanders know," Takumi answered. "But the Gatekeeper blew internally in orbit thankfully otherwise..."

Takumi was cut off by the child beside me retching. I reached down to rub his back, trying to reassure him if he was about to be sick but he simply started to cough at first. I lifted him up onto my knees as I began to pat his back but the coughing became even more violent and I held him closer to my chest.

I gazed up to see the squad's eyes wide in alarm and trained on the boy, suddenly he retched again and my shirt felt drenched in an unsettling warmth. I looked down to see my chest covered in vomit and blood but the coughing grew even more violent and the child began to convulse in a spasm. Suddenly I panicked and without thinking held him tighter against my chest as he shook uncontrollably into me. The surreal quiet of the APC vanished as he let out his lungs in a chord ripping scream against my ear, near deafening me. Somehow I lost control of his spasms and he slipped from my grasp, landing harshly on the floor he continued to convulse, his scream silenced as he struggled to find his next breath.

"Someone fucking help him!" I screamed as I knelt beside him, trying in vain to hold his thin body still.

Takumi called a halt to the vehicle, it stopped immediately as the Sergeant leapt out his seat towards us. He gripped the boy's shirt, now slick with fresh blood over old and dragged him out my hands towards the door. The tremors became impossibly worse as Takumi ripped the door open, lifted him off the floor with one hand and unceremoniously threw the child from the vehicle.

"Takumi! What the fuck are you doing!" I screamed as I slipped on the blood slickened floor trying to reach him.

"Private. Your incinerator!"

Finally on my feet I rushed towards the private and wrapped my hands around the weapon, trying desperately I screamed as I tried to wrestle it from him. Before I could react I saw his elbow shoot towards my face and my vision swam as I felt my head strike the floor. "He just needs help!" I shouted at the Sergeant as he floated in my sight, I could taste the metallic blood against my teeth as I heard the incinerator's pilot light spark to life.

"This is a mercy." Takumi growled. Suddenly a single shot rung out through the vehicle and my ears as the colours of fire swamped my vision. Fighting against the pain and nausea I darted towards him, my vision clearing with every horrified step. I remember shouting but there were no words as I threw Takumi into the driver's cabin without him making any effort to resist.

I stood at the open doorway gazing in horror at the burnt remains. The body lay there contorted in his last agony, burning away. Unrecognisable bar the silhouette of what was once a healthy, young boy with his dreams ahead of him, the clothes were mostly burnt away onto his dead skin with the heavy, sickening scent of cooking meat filling my nostrils. Soundless the body began to contort in spasms again in the flames, the subtle sounds of dirt being shifted beneath the body were overtaken by a deep bone-breaking snap as blood sprayed outwards from the chest.

Tiny specks of boiling blood splashed against my cold face, I was in too much shock to recoil from that or the immense heat as I saw something emerge from the post mortem wound. Squinting my eyes I peered into the flames and saw something snakelike rise from the wound, writhing in the inferno the creature let out a thin, blood curdling screech before it died. For the next few moments I stood frozen in horror, watching lost as innocence slowly turning to ash.

I felt hands around my arms as I was guided back to my seat, I didn't resist. My legs were moving on a guided autopilot before I was gently lowered onto the seat. Without a word said I could hear in another reality the vehicle shift back into motion towards what must be hell on Earth. An almost silent high pitched tone rung through my brain, propelling my nausea into new heights as my mind's eye locked onto the image of birth from death. My memory replayed the screams, the gunshot and a rapid staccato of breaking bones, the roar of the flamethrower. I didn't remember the flames being hot anymore but the blood staining my skin near penetrating my very being.

I looked down with razor sharp clarity at my ruined shirt, the blood had soaked into the fabric, painting me in a dark crimson that I could feel sticking to my bare chest. My head swam again and my stomach revolted, I couldn't move as I almost passively vomited over myself. It continued for a painfully long minute and just when I thought I would throw up my stomach acid it stopped.

My mind flashed to the child and his rejection of his last meal, I coughed out the last mouthful of vomit as my vision flashed back to normality. I clutched at my chest tightly, my breathing spiralled out of control as I launched up, one of those things was inside me, I was going to die.

"Relax David, its not airborne." Takumi said calmly as he eased me back down. "Your gonna be fine, they spread by parasites just ease down."

He repeated those words over and over until I could feel my breathing return to some sense of normality. Breathing deeper and deeper I inhaled my own scent and nearly threw up all over again. I rubbed my hands through my hair as I could only imagine the state of how I looked, my hair felt wet and i realised I had just rubbed the boy's blood through it. His death flashed through my mind again and it uncontrollably replayed the horror, punishing my sanity with strike after strike. All I could remember for the rest of the journey was that I wept uncontrollably, without care of shaming myself. I know the men beside me were numb from the horror. For me that numbness never came. I hoped it never would

I can still see that boy lying on the road, nameless and alone in the silent abandoned streets of what should have been home. His only companion being the winds of time that would slowly carry his ashes to somewhere lost in that wasteland of memory.


	2. Live to Die

**Live to Die**

There is nothing more freeing than to run. To repeat that simple cycle of movements as you feel the strength of your own body flourish and waver for as long as need be. All of the worries, memories and pains fall away in the primal effort to keep moving at pace. The breathing space that running offered the now retired Captain Takumi was second only to his dreams. The feeling of clarity was akin to keeping his head above water.

The Captain couldn't just run anywhere either, not the streets of his birth city amongst the visibly polluted air with the stink and noise of humanity. For a true escape he needed the visual tranquillity of the trees and flowers that only his neighbouring park could provide. Anywhere else and he wouldn't feel like he could fully breathe. Sheltered in a glass dome with filtered air it was only accessed through a toll, an expense that the Captain was willing to pay even with though it left a large hole in meagre pension.

Any time he regretfully had to travel to the inner city would always be a tortuous affair. He could hold his own keeping his troops alive under fire but dealing with the hustle and bustle of the crowds of inner Shanghai was nearly unbearable. Through the course of his life it seemed like society had lost its sense of community and decency. His wife had tried for years to reinforce in him a hope for people but even her tireless love couldn't rekindle that wasted ideal.

In his entire career he had endured the horrors of war and returned to her scarred only in his body. Even after they had taken his leg the memories never haunted him. His wife merely thought he was keeping his pain from her with the strength of a dutiful husband. That he only wished to spare her the horrifying details. The truth was he was traditionally raised and honour bound from a military family filled with men of stone. War never invaded home with it's pointless violence.

Battle was the duty of the men of the Takumi family. The family and home were the women's responsibility. They were looked down on from others for their views of women in combat, they respected fighting women but they wouldn't abandon generations of tradition. Takumi couldn't help but recognise glances as he pounded the pavement on this beautiful day. Dressed in a tank top and running shorts his scars were plain to see and his prosthetic leg augment garnered attention from the higher class runners and their obsession for the perfect body. His disgust was evident on his face as he passed their fake smiles, he knew that fitness wouldn't last under the hardships of military service. Their porcelain perfection would shatter under the pressure.

Some of them ran to solidify their confidence within themselves but Takumi's daily routine was his only escape from the pain of her. Finally after two hours with his body bathed in sweat and his mind somewhat recollected he left an oasis of peace and exited the dome into another realm. A tsunami of humanity.

His chest began tightening as he entered the endless horde of pedestrian commuters on Shanghai's chaotic footpaths. His vision was clouded to the backs in front of him as they walked in a unified pace of hurried frenzy. In the morning rush hour he sought the breath and sight of fresh air and gazed to the sky instinctively. A view of the sky was a distant hope as his eyes met buildings of monolithic proportions. Human construction grasped at the sun, blocking her light with fingers of engineered steel. These pillars of civilization shrouded the district's pathways in near constant shadow making the park Takumi's only daily source of natural light.

There were no conversations between members of the throng only grunts of discomfort as they each pressed against each other, desperate to reach their respective jobs. Takumi even in his tired state from the run was forced on by the heel-clipping shoes at his back as he rode the train of the daily human grind.

Just as the teeming crowds sparked his anxiety he gazed up to see the street sign he was looking for and he charged to the side, pushing and shoving until he escaped the undertow. He paused for a moment to catch his breath and let the pain in his chest subside. Her voice echoed in his mind soothing his anxiety with her gentle tone until his tired heart settled. With his breathing finally under control he continued on in the journey of his daily routine.

He escaped the crowds into a shortcut through a desolate underpass that most if not all civilians avoided. Nicknamed Purgatory by local law enforcement the entire underside of the raised freeway was taken over by some of the city's homeless. Most of them to his disgust and shame were ex military and no matter how much the politicians railed against this fallen fate of the nation's heroes their number only continued to grow.

Their tax funded survival skills were developed so they could make a home in enemy territory in every corner of the galaxy. Now those skills kept them alive as the people they swore to protect ignored their hellish reward to their bravery and sacrifice. Campfires littered the area beside beds made from anything from blankets, cardboard to even newspapers. A tent was considered hot property and often fought for.

Takumi walked through confidently, he could hear his name being called out a few times and he smiled and waved back. When he had the money he would purchase food and water to distribute amongst these brothers and sisters in arms. He continued to make his way through Purgatory without haste or apprehension, occasionally stopping to check on some of the residents before continuing on. Upon reaching the other side he gazed into another raging torrent of humanity and braced himself for crossing the river of willing slaves and wasted dreams.

He pushed against the tide as it flowed downwards, without apology or recognition of his ailment they crashed against him. They were so desperate to work jobs they hated to buy things they didn't need that they didn't care who got in their way. The sea of faces briefly formed a gap which revealed his salvation situated below massive screens advertising unaffordable milestones for the masses.

He reached the other side and swiftly entered the apartment block where he lived and he was greeted by the familiar, lingering scent of human settlement as a young child's protesting cry sounded from a floor above. When it was first built the walls were a clinical white but now from years of neglect they were a dirty smoke-stained yellow and littered with ugly, mindless graffiti. Some of the apartment's doors were left open as Takumi passed by them, their residents ignorant of being a nuisance as they mingled loudly in the hallways. As he ascended the building towards his apartment on the fourth floor he couldn't help but notice certain residents conducting criminal activities as they sold narcotics outside their homes without fear of consequence.

Finally he was on his floor but the door to his apartment was blocked by two young boys who grinned as they saw him approach. They passed him without saying a word and he discreetly passed them a few dollars each. It was a simple arrangement, they watched over certain apartments when the owners were away so they wouldn't be robbed or vandalised. If he didn't pay them his home would be ransacked the next time he left it.

He swiped his keycard along the lock before the door slid open and he entered with a feeling of relief and sadness. Instantly he saw her resting on top of the table beside the balcony door, the love of his life nestled inside a featureless, black porcelain jar. He walked over and tenderly brushed his hand against the orb as the bittersweet image of her smile rocked him from his foundations. He immediately regretted touching her as he realised he was in dire need of a shower. He silently cursed himself for jeopardizing her purity with his dirty hands and left to take a shower.

Once washed and refreshed he heated a meal of chicken and rice and without complaint to its lack of flavour consumed it as he listened to the sounds of the world pass him by through his open balcony. His apartment was spartan and immaculately kept through military discipline and respect to his wife's standard. Completely lacking in decoration except for the table in which her ashes rested. Plastic flowers lacking scent surrounded a photo of her pale, smiling face framed in dark wood with unlit tealights surrounding the vase. It was the focus piece of his existence, a minimalist expression of her existence, a mere shadow of how the light of her life filled his heart.

Such a lost love was a double edged sword that tormented every pleasured memory of her with a vicious duality and the ever sharpened pangs of loss. He attempted to escape the hurt with the continuation of his daily ritual as he tidied away all signs of recent habitation. Once his home was cleaned to her liking he rested himself on his throne beside her and lit the tealights. With the sweet scent of lavender filling his nostrils he laid his head back and closed his eyes before sinking into the conscious dreams of a life past.

In this meditative state his memories of her were so strong he believed he could feel her beside him. He could feel the warmth of her body against him as the entrancing smell of her hair settled his tumultuous heart. His need for her was agonising and he reached for her only to feel the cold coming form the open balcony door and the memory of her ghost drift away from his yearning reach.

Cursing he leapt up and moved to shut the door only to see a lifeless crow nestled against the balcony wall, he knelt down and lifted its dead weight and she flooded his mind again. He was holding her as her loving heart failed her and robbed him of the better half of his soul. He felt her panicked tremors as he fought against her last strength, helplessly holding her in his arms as he pleaded for her to live. He remembered the exact moment when he felt the life leave her body as she grew limp in his terrified, shaking grasp. He rested in that hospital room for what seemed like an eternity, too afraid to move her. Foolishly disbelieving her death and hoping against all hope that she would begin to move again. The doctors found them an hour later bathed in his silent tears as he cursed the cruel world that would take this angel and not him, an awarded killer.

He wrapped the dead bird in a towel and rested it inside a plastic container out in the balcony. He would dispose of it tomorrow. Back inside he sat frozen gazing at her picture as grief washed over him in continuation of his daily torture. Their son told him that he should get out in the world and meet new people that having friends would make the loss more bearable.

He didn't understand this world anymore and all of his friends were dead, crushed under the slow rolling weight of military ambition to guard a world that wouldn't give them the time of day. He was a slowly aging iron relic in a world obsessed with technology and the all encompassing power of currency. This apartment was his only sanctuary, a still island oasis from the constant living waves of a world alien to him.

Looking towards his apartment's rarely used telecom system his despair moved to his son and their torn relationship. It beckoned him to press a few buttons and end a cavernous gap between parent and child that had begun with something so trivial but he knew both of their titanic prides would never allow that bridge to be crossed. Yet he missed his grandchildren and selfishly he missed their innocent power to draw him away from his memories. He hated himself even further for such a destructive weakness.

Reaching inside the single drawer underneath her photo he drew forth the tool of his trade. Cared for to the highest degree its grip was fitted to his hand as a perfect joining of man and machine, life and death. Without thinking he turned the loaded handgun on himself and pressed the muzzle into his temple, feeling the cool barrel rest against his short cropped hair he turned to gaze at her.

His eyes misted with tears as grief and regret unrelentingly pummelled his will. He still retained the composure to realise that if he pulled the trigger he would cover her with his blood. Swallowing hard he moved the barrel to his mouth and pressed it in, the sickly taste of metal mixing with bile as he fought with his mounting depression. The grip was warm now and slick with sweat as he fought for release, he was sick of waiting for the end, he wanted to be free of this living purgatory.

With trembling hands he gazed at her smile and those loving eyes, knowing she wouldn't want this fate for him. Part of him at that moment hated her for being in his life, for loving him. Feeling his stomach lurch he ripped the barrel out his mouth as he vomited over the clean floor with tears and sweat covering his face in a lotion of inner pain.

A bittersweet numbness rose in him as he moved to clean the evidence of his attempted suicide. The ordeal only lasted a brief minute but it exhausted him to his very core as he disposed of the vomit-soaked towel and knelt down to wipe the floor clean with disinfectant. Once finished he looked up to her with one hand on her ashes. "I'll wait." He whispered before getting up and staggering towards the bedroom.

Like the rest of his home it was devoid of decoration only containing a single bed and a set of drawers containing uninformedly folded sets of the same clothes. Too drained to even undress himself he collapsed onto the bed, grateful for the feeling of cool fabric against his stressed and overheated body. He lay facing the shuttered window listening to the never sleeping hive of humanity outside, watching as the thin lights of aerial traffic flew past until thankfully sleep took him.

For years he had grown accustomed to the constant droning sound of the city, no matter how high you got an apartment you couldn't escape it. So with this it wasn't a loud noise that awoke Takumi it was the fact that for a brief moment all noise was cut out in an eerie city-wide silence. Alarmed he opened his eyes and slowly raised himself to approach the window. Gradually the black night sky was illuminated from a descending sun as the masses outside screamed in fleeing panic as an army fled uselessly from danger. Shielding his eyes from the intense light Takumi barely made it halfway out his bedroom door before the heavens fell to Earth.

Takumi was flung backwards as the hammer of the gods thunderclapped against his ears with strike after strike as he struggled to raise himself up only to be thrown back again. He was completely deaf and as such his balance failed him on multiple occasions. His vision swam as hellfire seared across open windows and he finally stood up and walked towards the balcony on trembling legs.

His progress was halted by the sight of her vessel scattered across the floor, mixed with burnt plastic flower petals and the broken glass of her now ruined picture. Behind her scattered ashes was a city broken and burning as towers in the distance crumbled down into a storm of dust and debris enshrouding a helpless chorus of screams.

A panicked shock filled his muscles with a wavering strength as he wiped her ashes into a pile, caring not for the shards of glass piercing his hands as the fuel of his life mixed with her death. Her former vase shattered he threw the dead crow from the plastic container and hastily brushed his wife's remains into it, too hysteric and fearful to care for his methods. He clutched her close to him as he stepped towards his phone station only to find the communication mainframe completely malfunctioning.

Suffering from shock and a severe concussion he collapsed against the wall, his vision fading as the rubble settled within the interior of the city. He was unconscious as the black devils crawled forth from hell to snatch away those helpless souls unlucky enough to escape a quick death. For the next few hours the noise of civilization was replaced with the gunfire and screams of a city under siege from within. Takumi saw none of this as he slept a dreamless, death-like slumber.

His eyes opened slowly, the lids and eyelashes glued together by eye-watered dust as he gazed on a view of chaos from prime real estate. She was still clutched in his arms wincing as the bruises o his body protested against movement.

A hideous scream came from somewhere above his apartment as a burst of gunfire echoed from somewhere further into the city. His instincts pressed him into action and he checked over his prosthetic leg for damage, it was still functional. Swiftly but with caution he raised himself up and peered outside his apartment. The door was open, the locking mechanism malfunctioning as his eyes met damaged, flickering lights. They illuminated a grisly sight as he stared at blood smeared across the walls of the hallway and leading downwards to the stairs.

Something not human screeched from floors above, heavy thunderous pounding could be heard descending downwards at an impossible speed. Takumi silently stalked back inside to his bedroom as the heavy footsteps were on his level and approaching. Gently he lowered himself under his bedframe until he was satisfied that he was hidden.

From his position and in the flickering light he saw black skeletal feet enter his apartment, followed closely by a long, bony tail with a sickle bladed tip. With his heart hammering from a primal fear of this unknown beast he harnessed all his control to regulate his breathing as it entered the bedroom. The claws of its slender feet clicked against the hard floor as thick, jelly like saliva dripped on the floor. Heavy breaths came from the lungs of the monster as Takumi felt himself pressed into the floor by the sheer presence of this creature as it stopped just beside the bed.

He could hear his heartbeat pounding into his ears as he saw clawed hands lowered to the floor. This was his end and he clutched her in a death grip, afraid but ready for the end. Its crouch continued to lower until the lower half of an open mouth could be seen. Lined with glistening sharp teeth the creature's breathing turned into a resonating hiss until a loud clang could be heard from the apartment next door.

Before Takumi could even begin to swallow his colossal fear the beast had turned and raced out the apartment like lightning on charging steps to invade his neighbour. He heard the door being smashed in followed closely by lung shredding screams as they were cut short. He didn't know the couple next door, they seemed like nice people on first glance but like most people he was viewed as invisible.

He didn't have time to consider the horror that was taking place next door, he new this was his only chance, the monster would come back. He shifted out from underneath his bed and left the apartment keeping his hurried steps as quiet as possible. He made it halfway down the first flight of stairs before he heard something following.

It was the woman from next door, screaming as she ran down the hall towards the stairs. Takumi turned to see her make her way around the corner, staring at him before it claimed her. She barely made it down one step before a black, glistening hand wrapped around the entirety of her skull. She was pulled back out Takumi's sight like a weightless ragdoll and he turned to run for his life.

He raced down three steps at a time convinced he was being chased even though nothing could be heard behind. With each floor descended more sights of death and macabre graced his eyes, the lingering crowds of residents were discarded bodies, the graffiti lining the walls were painted over with blood. His burning lungs absorbed the stench of the dead without repulsion, to stop was to join them.

Finally he reached the ground floor and the open door to the outside was in his sight. He had never seen the street outside empty, the dried up human riverbed perplexed him even with all that was going on. His brief pause was punished as something hammered into his side, sending him flying into a wall. His grip on the container failed and it smacked the wall with him, splitting open as she was spilled again onto the bloodstained floor.

He looked up to see the devil's elongated head and fanged tongue before he was pierced by a needle and his sight faded into black once more.

Something worse than death filled his nostrils, a putrid scent unlike anything else he had ever experienced. Decomposition, mixed with the excreted bowels of the terrified and the dead with hints of burnt tar as the odour clung to his very skin. He felt weightless as he awoke yet again from another forced slumber to the sounds of the tortured and the damned sharing a bed with hell's screaming angels.

The air was thick with a humid mist as his vision cleared to reveal the ninth circle. He was plastered to the walls of what appeared to be a sewer tunnel by strong black resin, aligned along a wall of harvested humans. Some awake and wailing in helpless horror, some had their eyes open but the life had fled their bodies along with hope. Some hung truly dead with massive wounds bored into their chests, their lifeless husks hung with their blood dripping onto the black, ridged floor.

The living catacombs held its own voice entirely, a heavy breathing that crawled along each surface to somewhere impossibly deeper in the belly of this nightmare. A whispering hiss that echoed in unison with the miserable wails of the taken. Hope was situated in the centre of the sewer junction in the form of an open manhole cover and the ladders needed to ascend it into the growing sunrise.

The floor was flooded to ankle height by sewage water joined by blood, littered with waist height leathery orbs. Some were open and others were closed but each reminded him of her shattered vessel back home, but lost love was not what was contained inside these orbs. Their gift was the skin coloured arachnids that lay curled up and dead underneath every human in sight. Some were still alive and clung to their victim's face with ribbed tails wrapped tightly around their necks, near strangling them. Takumi now knew where his unusual pains originated from as he saw a dead parasite situated below him, its purpose still unknown.

The moist heat was oppressive as Takumi struggled to intake air down his throat, he felt like he had swallowed a roll of sandpaper. Each time his lungs filled with the stench he could feel them press against something, something foreign that felt like a dead weight in his chest. Sweat poured from every pore in his body as it rolled down his head to fall from his chin. Beads of liquid fell like rain from the roof above enticing him to look up.

More people were glued to the roof as tears and blood joined the ever amassing pool beneath him but there was something else clinging to the surfaces beside the cattle. Things that were very much at home, camouflaged amongst their own construction. He couldn't make out their full form but once he recognised one he began to see them everywhere. One was positioned only a few feet above him on the roof, curled into a foetal position, only a set of glistening teeth were fully visible. His eyes graced the jaws for a few more seconds before they parted slowly and a tongue crept outward tipped with its own set of teeth. Thick, oily saliva collected at the end of the tongue before dropping down into Takumi's eyes. Blinded he threw his head from side to side and gasped as he tried to blink away the substance that glued his eyelashes shut.

The atmosphere of comatose suffering continued for some time until the man fastened next to Takumi started to cough, almost like something was tickling the back of his throat. Soon it turned violent as it was clear the man was struggling for breath, fighting against his regurgitated restraint the struggle then turned into an uncontrollable seizure.

People were shaken out from their own suffering and wailed in protest as they recognised what was happening to him. Takumi was still confused but he knew deep within himself that this was disturbingly wrong. A loud crack sounded from inside the man's chest and almost on queue a melody of hisses emanated from the walls. The black skinned beast above him began to shift and slowly descended in front of him.

It lowered itself with a mesmerising elegance until it stood with its face level to Takumi's even though he was positioned a few feet above the ground. What light there was in the chamber glistened against the creature's smooth, wet and elongated carapace. It glanced at Takumi briefly without eyes as it stalked towards the man beside him.

Takumi could tell from experience that one of the poor soul's lung was pierced by the broken rib. He was proved right as the man struggled to breath through the stream of blood that was coming up from his penetrated lung. The beast caressed his face with its skeletal, six digited hand, such an act would be considered comforting from a human but this thing had turned the gesture perverse. It gripped his head tighter holding his tremors still as he breathed his last breath in a metallic choking agony. Finally he drowned in his own blood and he fell as still as a statue, a grotesque recycling of living tissue turned into an adornment on the wall.

Takumi thought the worst of it was over until the body started to shake again and the beast turned its caring hand towards the chest. It move in closer to the body blocking Takumi's sight of what was happening but the sounds were unmistakable. Something horrifying was emerging.

Further bones were broken and flesh was torn apart until a screeching cry of inhuman life rung through his ears. The beast turned to reveal its sibling, a pale, blood covered serpent that rested quietly now in its grasp.

Pain rose inside Takumi's chest as he could swear he just felt something move inside him. The creature then walked slowly out the chamber with the infant still in its hands, disappearing into the dark towards a mother that none in this room would ever see. Takumi realised now what this room's purpose was. It was a birthing chamber, a sick and twisted maternity ward. He knew what fate awaited him. He was to die helplessly in agony, wrapped in an unescapable embrace, just like she had died. With a heart full of determined rage he swore to himself that he wouldn't die here. It would be on his own terms, he would die in his home, holding her.

Years of discipline instilled from his military career had driven him even in his older age to continue a daily routine of exercise and in this moment he was ever thankful for it. His arms were encased in the still hardening resin against his chest and with all of his might and pain he pushed against the organic restraint. Moment by moment he pushed on but it felt unmoveable. Despair entered his thoughts but left just as quickly once he felt the resin crack and finally give way as his arms were finally freed. The small victory gave his tired muscles fresh vigour and he pulled away at the hive material around his waist. He grunted in effort silently, not wanting to alert the creatures around him. What he didn't know was that he was already being watched but as far as they were concerned the deadly seed was planted and they were simply waiting for it to flower.

Pulling free the last piece away from his legs he fell heavily against the floor, his arm taking the brunt of the impact against the steel surface. Pain flared in his arm and he knew something was broken, his gritted teeth nearly biting his tongue off in an effort to stop him screaming. He could feel his arm getting number by the second as blood flooded back into his legs.

His escape attempt didn't go unnoticed by the humans who's purpose to these monsters remained undelivered. The screamed and pleaded for him to free them. As an officer he had to look at situations involving life and death objectively and now was no different. He had the clarity and the lack of self preservation to realise that both himself and these people were in the same situation. They were already dead but still they clung to the hope of survival with a desperate grasp. He simply wanted to die in his own way and these people would slow him down.

He rose up to feel his clothes sodden with warm, liquid decay even after he escaped this scent would never leave him. He looked around and gazed coldly into the other's eyes wide with terror and without a reply he headed towards the ladders and the hopeful light that enforced the other's doom. He climbed swiftly upward, escaping hell as the waiting dead railed weak, pleading cries that followed him to the surface.

He reached street level to greet a rising sun that created shafts of golden rays between the ruined buildings. Once he was on his feet he took the time to drag the manhole cover back onto the sewer entrance, he didn't know if it would hold against any pursuers but he needed a few seconds to collect himself.

Despite the pollution that still hung through the air of the inner city it was heavenly compared to the decrepit stench from below. The lonely emptiness of the streets was such a shock to the Captain that despite his situation he couldn't help but simply walk and take in this sight. He had always dreamt of running through empty streets devoid of the masses. Now his dream was a reality and the masses littered the streets torn and ripped apart, the unlucky ones were awaiting a worse fate submerged under their own collective filth.

The silence had an ambience all its own as his footsteps echoed through the streets, nothing apart from him moved through the dead city. He was careful to avoid the bodies that littered the roads until he saw one of the beasts dead within a ritualistic circle of bullet cases. Seeing it in the daylight did nothing to lessen the fear he felt as he approached it cautiously. The sun highlighted its features which looked more machine than flesh, its grievous wound and the blood that flowed had melted through the concrete directly into the sewer levels. He kicked it to ensure it was dead and once satisfied he peered into the darkness.

The increasing daylight reflected off something massive, the view of the floor was blocked by a massive crowned head of blackened bone. The creatures he had seen were dwarfed by this horror and through some unknown sense it knew it was being watched and raised its maw to the light. A jaw of massive crystalline fangs opened and a subtle raspy breath was uttered.

Takumi's heart sank to icy depths as she breathed fear into his heart. He rose swiftly and assessed his location in the city. His composure was shattered as her near silent call was answered from shrieks and roars that poured from the buildings around him and below. They were everywhere and they were coming for him.

His apartment was to the east of the city so he pointed himself towards the rising sun and broke into a desperate run. Years of needless exercise had led him to this moment as he pounded the pavement for the final time, he had never been so free within his own mind. Clarity and focus guiding him towards the end as he raced home, leaping over rubble and bodies with ease. His rhythmic breathing though compressed the unwanted child inside him and it he began to feel it move more erratically.

He increased his speed even further, he didn't need to care about waking up with an injury the next morning as he pushed himself to the limit. His eyes were finally greeted by street signs and his heart lifted even more, he was only a few blocks away. Glass broke behind him and he turned his head to see one of the beasts running on all fours at an impossible pace towards him.

His lungs and muscles were aflame but he growled through gritted teeth and pushed himself through the pain boundary as he broke into the fastest sprint of his life. He could hear the creature move its immense weight closer and closer towards him. Panic flared into his mind, he wouldn't make it home before it pounced onto him, dragging him to die back in that pit. He could hear more of them join the pursuit but even with superior speed none came close to him, they kept a steady distance and merely followed.

Takumi still refused to cease his pace and finally the entrance to his apartment building was in sight, he just hoped that none were there waiting to ambush him. He rushed inside and skidded to a halt, her ashes were scattered all over the floor, mixed in with drying blood. He turned swiftly to see at least a dozen of the beasts advancing towards him, they had slowed down to a cautious stalk.

Pain exploded in his chest for the brief flash of a moment as the infant inside him signalled its readiness to join its siblings outside. He reached down and hastily scooped a handful of her ashes into his hand and raced up the stairwell, the pain he forced himself to run through was close to indescribable. His pursuers could then be heard entering behind him with pounding stomps and piercing cries.

He reached his floor when the infant threw its first kick, the pain near felled Takumi as he staggered to a halt against the wall, clutching his chest as he gazed down the stairs. His eyes met rows of hissing wet teeth that ascended the stairs slowly, their clawed hands extended almost calling him to give in.

He threw himself off the wall and stumbled towards his apartment, his vision was a blur from the nauseating pain but still through an indomitable will he pressed on. He was too focused on his objective to contemplate his finality, too busy keeping his head above the sea of pain that racked his aged shell. Reaching his front door he leaned against as another punch came, stealing the air from his lungs as he vomited blood onto his floor.

Tears fell without care from the pain and still his hand held her ashes with an iron fist as he gazed on her destroyed shrine and the salvation that it held. Struggling for breathe his body failed the strength of his heart and his knees gave way, crashing him onto the hard floor with a weak grunt. Still he held her as he dragged himself towards the overturned table, leaving a bloody trail and granules of ash as his time drew near.

Agony was redefined in that slow desperate crawl as his mind fled body and sense to somewhere deep inside himself. He didn't see the shattered kingdom outside his window and he didn't think of the avatars of death that invaded his home to claim what was theirs. They towered over him silently as he finally reached his goal, knowing that the birth was mere seconds away.

He ripped the drawer out with whatever strength that remained in his free arm and the pistol clattered on the floor before him. He wrapped his hand around the cold death just as he did so long ago, openly weeping through pain and sorrow as he gazed once more at the torn pieces of her smile.

"I'm done waiting." He spoke through lungs tattered and torn as the demons turned him over without effort. He closed his eyes to them before lifting the gun to his temple and pulled the trigger to welcome that calm, peaceful abyss.

His body lay limp as the infant broke free from his ribcage to be collected by its guardians, they left his home with a deathly silence as her ashes drifted through his open palm. Amongst all the chaos no one would ever know of the incredible pain he overcame nor would they know of the sense of completion he felt as he pressed that muzzle into his head and ended his daily torment.


	3. Winterborn

Winterborn

Morgan awakened wearily to an all-consuming cold. A temperature so extreme it crept inside her body with icy fingers, wrapping around her bones and nerves with a numbing grip. Forcing her into a suicidal slumber as the hypothermia comforted her with a deceitful warmth. She slipped in and out of consciousness as a voice struggled to shake her from her final sleep.

"Lieutenant! Lieutenant snap out of it! You're going to die here!" The voice screamed from a million miles away. Every time she opened her eyes, all she saw was her breath emanating in a cloud of steam before darkness took her again. As she slept, the dream was always the same.

She was ascending past the heavens to the familiar black canvas of space littered with the white of distant stars. She was breathing in relief at a chance to escape the hell that was Shanghai. But a star shot towards her in the blink of an eye and in that instant her vision was swamped with warnings and klaxons firing away as her vessel descended uncontrollably back down to Earth. The next few minutes appeared as disjointed flashes as she struggled to regain control of her clipped wings.

One moment she was wrestling the titanic weight of her chariot above an entire continent and before she could process her situation, she was a thousand feet above the ground staring at dark trees littering the snow-covered ground. It was a direct contrast, a photo negative of her salvation. Before she knew it she could identify individual branches among the hundreds of trees she passed. Feeling them crushed under her ship like a roadkill massacre until the white collided with her.

She opened her eyes again as a small explosion emanated from behind her, the force of the blast shaking her bruised and battered body as something collided with her. Whatever it was landed on her back and the weight pressed down with enough pressure that her ribs couldn't expand to breathe. She coughed back into the present, looking around in shock and complete confusion.

She was lying face down on the cold metal beside her pilot's chair. As she rolled the weight off her back with a weak grunt and her vision started to clear, she saw that it was her co-pilot Ford. At least the unmarred half of him she recognised: one side of his face was burned down to the sinew and bone, his flight suit scorched and torn by the explosion.

She cried out in fright, scuttling back against her flight console as she stared in horror at the co-pilot's corpse. All the while coughing up phlegm and struggling for breath as a headache pounded away behind her eyes with nauseous power.

"Lieutenant, can you hear me?" The voice spoke again, she recognised it but couldn't place it's owner in her memory as she looked around to ascertain its origin.

"Yes. Yes I can hear you." She gasped, staring into the flames that lit the back of the flight deck. She looked at them as she would in any other situation; a hazard. But she could not have known that the heat it generated was the only reason she was still alive.

"Lieutenant, listen to me very carefully. Your ship has crashed and you're in imminent danger. You're high in the mountains of Siberia. The headache and breathing difficulties are an early symptom of altitude sickness. It's imperative you listen to my instructions and get to a lower altitude. Unless you'd prefer to lie here and die that is?"

Morgan listened intently but her eyes still darted wearily to seek the source of the voice until she realised it was coming from her flight console. She raised herself onto unsteady legs like a new-born foal and leaned on the console staring at the speaker dusted lightly with snow.

"You're memory is affected by the concussion from the crash; you're lucky to be alive. I'm Edison, you're ship's assistant AI. I'll explain more later, but right now you need to prepare. You've got a long journey ahead of you and there's not much time." The voice spoke slowly so she could soak in each word despite her near delirious state.

"What do I need to do?" She asked in between more heaving coughs.

"You need to extinguish that fire first to access supplies. There's an emergency survival kit in what remains of the crew quarters. After that gather up as much food, water and clothing as you can then return here. I'll have finalised my transfer into a datapad for transportation by then."

"Okay." She saw a portable fire extinguisher underneath the console and wrenched it out of its housing before turning to face the fire blocking her access to the remains of the ship.

"Wait!" Edison called. "Once that fire has gone the temperature in here will drop drastically." He paused for a moment. "Just be sure to move quickly acquiring your supplies and don't forget to come back for me. You'll never make off this mountain alive without me."

She didn't reply or turn to acknowledge his words. Morgan merely just glanced at the now comforting flames for a moment, soaking in their heat as she prepared herself. Part of her didn't believe it could get any colder as uncontrollable shivers reverberated through her whole body. She delayed the moment for as long as she could before she began extinguishing the flames. As the tool gained ground in the battle against the fire, Morgan felt the cold further intensify. The billowing smoke attacking her strained, bloodshot eyes. Coughing loudly again, she crossed into the smoke-ridden barrier and through the door still not entirely aware of how dangerous her crisis was.

The shivering she experienced before turned into a vicious tremor that ran through her body as she raced through the frozen, lifeless corridors. Thankfully Edison was able to operate the ship's loudspeaker systems though his voice was distorted and cut out occasionally.

"This part of the ship is running on an auxiliary power generator but it won't last long. Lucky for us the reactor was simply ripped from the ship and is safe from detonating. This entire mountain would be swept clean if it did."

"Thanks Edison, that's really comforting." Morgan replied. She finally found the survival kit, lodged behind a hardened glass barrier, criss-crossed with red and white paint. On the outside it merely looked like a large backpack but inside were all the utilities she would need to survive most hostile environments with an atmosphere close to Earth's. If she'd crashed on any other planetoid absent of an atmosphere hospitable to human life, she would have been better off dying in the crash. The kit contained a self-inflating tent along with a portable heating unit, a loop of composite rope with the tensile strength of chains as well as two high pressure oxygen tanks and a handful of signal flares. Last but not least there was a pistol for personal defence, it didn't make Morgan feel any better and part of her contemplated leaving it behind.

"Make sure and use the oxygen regularly but don't overdo it. It'll help keep your symptoms at bay and maintain your functionality long enough to escape this altitude." Edison pointed out as she hefted the heavy pack out of its housing.

"Terrific." She coughed again before taking the mask attached to the tank and sucked in a lungful of oxygen. It was almost too much and she had to steady herself against the nausea for a moment. "I think I'd rather take the reactor going off than dying out there in the cold."

She stared down the corridor to the first true sight of what awaited her outside. Fifty meters from where she stood the corridor disappeared into the Siberian tundra; it was if a giant had broken her ship in two. The other half was just simply gone as a howling wind whistled inside the ship. Past the breach she could see the massive tear in the forest, caused by the ship ploughing through an army of trees older than living memory leaving a debris-laden path to salvation.

She could see bits and pieces of her ship littering the wake of her tragic descent: it stretched for miles along the woodland and for another brief moment she took in the view. She had seen trees before but they were always smothered by metal walls inside nearly every spaceport she'd ever visited. No one really cared that the only reason those trees were alive was due to the great number of chemicals and preservatives pumped into them. Bastardising something wild and beautiful to give those homesick souls in deep space an engineered reminder of a home many had never set foot upon. Outside that torn breach was the long forgotten frontier of the old wild, Mother Nature's last surviving bastion on Earth and it was a bittersweet sight.

"Lieutenant you don't have the time to stare at the view." Edison interrupted. Morgan was too absorbed in her thoughts at the price of industrial progress to remember that minute by minute she was slowly dying.

She was about to move when she saw something else moving, far into the distance. She couldn't distinguish what it was because of how far it was but her eyes registered that something was definitely moving.

"Edison there's something out there." Morgan said, her eyes never leaving the anomaly.

"Stand by I'm trying to access the exterior topside camera." Edison said as she continued to watch. Outside the ship the camera emerged from its protective recess, its mechanical joints straining to break the thin layer of ice that formed around it. Edison struggled to attain a clear image through the ice layered over the camera's lens but he saw enough to recognise yet another danger to his last surviving charge.

His voice returned after a few moments. "It's an East Siberian Brown Bear. One of the last of its kind. Tread carefully Lieutenant it's a carnivore and the local logging outposts have suffered casualties from the surviving handful of bears in this region. You better take that pistol with you, firing a warning shot into the air might drive it off. Pepper spray would be the preferable deterrent but we'll have to just improvise."

"You're fucking joking right? There's not a chance in hell I'm going that way with that beast." She looked to the roof as she spoke, appearing to converse with the dead ship itself.

"You have to. The nearest settlement is a logging camp in that direction. No more delays, you need to collect supplies. Now please move." It was impossible for Edison to order her but it didn't change the feeling of pressure and urgency those words provided.

Morgan spent the next ten minutes collecting everything she could as fast as possible. She had to remember and not break herself into a sweat. She remembered reading somewhere that perspiring sweat would freeze as an icy layer over her bare body, dooming her no matter what clothing she wore. Finally she was back in the flight deck with two extra rucksacks filled with supplies and a messy pile of clothing littered around her.

"Add as many layers as you can without restricting your movement too much." Edison advised and she followed. A certain level of perspiration was inevitable and she donned a synthetic cotton undershirt to help wick away the worst of it.

Her options for further insulation were limited: there was no clothing in what remained of crew quarters suitable for these conditions so she had to improvise. Luckily enough there was a serviceable jacket that she wore over the three layers of long-sleeved shirts insulating her slim frame. The pair of welding gloves would have to do and she was forced to wrap her thin boots with shirts to seal her feet from the worst of the snow.

"I've calculated that it should take an average of three days to reach the settlement. Luckily the ship paved a gap in the trees directing you towards there so you shouldn't get lost." Edison said.

"It's something at least." Morgan was double checking her clothing preparations, wrapping everything as tightly as she could hoping against hope that it would be a suitable barrier against the hostile conditions that awaited her.

"There's also one other thing." The AI pointed out

Morgan stared towards the speaker. "What?"

"The cargo you were carrying. The refugees. Some of them might be still alive."

For a moment Morgan sat in a state of disbelief. "How? With the flak we took from the Gatekeepers and the crash how could they possibly survive when Ford didn't?" She stared at his body for the second time since she had awoken, she couldn't face looking at the horrifying damage his body suffered as that empty eye socket stared back into her. Still taken aback by the sight she continued arming herself with woven warmth.

"The cargo unit they resided in was a separate module. I estimate that the structure itself suffered minimal damage as it detached from the ship. I used what remained of the scanners to ascertain its position and it's along the route to our destination, so it's imperative that you check it out."

Morgan was finalising a makeshift hat and scarf as she processed yet another development that was being added onto her grim situation. "Like you said Edison I'm in a dire enough scenario as it is, if any of them are alive they're better off dead. They'll only slow me down and drain my supplies, fuck 'em."

"Might I remind you that contractually they are under your duty of care until you deliver them to safety. I'll have no option if you neglect this but to note it to the company upon our return if you survive." She could hear his voice attain a certain tone of perceived authority.

"Fine. I'll check it out but I guarantee you they're dead. Can't believe I'm taking orders from a goddamn robot voice in a speaker." Morgan complained as she prepped the supply bags with the loop of rope. There was no way she could carry them so she had no option but to drag them along with her. The bags would have to shelter the supplies as she dragged them along behind her.

"My transfer to the datapad is now complete. I'd recommend taking your headset so I can see what you see through the on-board camera and also you'll hear me in case of a storm." As Edison said that the datapad connected to the flight console flashed into life with a green hue and a rudimentary face formed on the 8-bit screen with a lifeless, mocking smile.

Morgan walked over to it clumsily, the extra layers definitely hindered her but she wasn't exactly trying to tempt Ford into bed again. She pulled the pad from its connecting slot and stared into the digital face.

"Ready to go?" He said as a fluctuating soundwave appeared below the simple face.

Morgan connected the headset with its accompanying camera and faced it towards her.

"How do I look?" She asked

"Huge." Edison replied, it sounded almost like he was genuinely smiling. Was that for his benefit or for hers?

"Fuck you." She donned the headset wrapped her makeshift hat over it. She let out a deep breath before staring down at what remained of Ford one last time. She tried her best to ignore his brutalised state and instead recalled on the memory of him. As far as time outside of the sleep chambers was concerned she'd only known him for a matter of months but you learned a lot about a person in such intense periods of isolation from the rest of humanity. Friends outside of the profession were hard to come by, most especially relationships.

"Goodbye Ford," A single tear trickled down her cheek and absorbed into the scarf that covered her face. "At least you went quickly, that's all that anyone can ask for I guess."

She turned away and exited back into the remains of crew quarters. She felt like a child leaving home for the first time into an unknown, terrifying world. For as long as she could remember this ship was not just her livelihood but her only home. She couldn't even recall the last time she stepped onto the surface of a planet. Such was the life of most cargo haulers who wanted to keep a sustainable rate of work.

She walked down the last corridor to its torn exit, seeing the light at the end of the tunnel brought no comfort and for every step she took she could further hear the infinite tone of the mountains: a whistling gale that blew through the standing army of trees, the eternal voice of Mother Nature. Finally she exited and the unobstructed sun glared all over this barren realm of white. As her eyes adjusted to the sight her breath caught in her chest as she gazed around, taking in the view. She knew it was beautiful but all she could think of was that she'd feel less alone and isolated in the middle of space.

"It's a magnificent sight but you must push on. Storms here come thick and fast." Edison's voice rang through her ear piece.

Thankfully she only had to follow the trail of destruction left by the crash and the compacted snow that had been hammered down by tons of speeding steel. She didn't dare imagine the effort she would have to exert to walk on the unmolested snow that flanked her in walls that towered at head height.

She was thousands of feet above the ocean yet the effort to simply breathe felt more like a constant drowning. She reached for the oxygen mask only when she knew she couldn't bear it any longer, she didn't want to risk using it all too soon.

Continuing on she could do nothing but think and remember. Slowly the full picture of the disaster was rebuilt in her mind. She kept asking herself why they didn't try and make it for the EEV but then she recalled that the gravity drive was disabled by the rail gun fire they took. Ford floated around after the calamity, trying desperately to reach his seat but he didn't get there in time.

As the ship re-entered Earth's atmosphere the G force punched him into the back wall. The impact must've broken his neck as Morgan didn't hear him cry out. Maybe he did, it all happened so fast that every cell in her body was focused on levelling the ship so they didn't hit the surface nose first.

"Edison, why the hell did they shoot us down?" Morgan asked between panted breaths.

"Before we took incoming fire, I intercepted communications between the Gatekeeper stations. A quarantine has been initiated on ships leaving Asia, military vessels were coming in but nothing was getting out." Edison replied.

"You intercepted communications? I didn't think you were capable of that."

"Well technically I listened in. They didn't exactly try to hide their comm traffic."

"What about the other refugee ships? They couldn't have shot them all down."

"I'm not sure."

"That's a first." She remarked.

Morgan walked on for what felt like forever, progress seemed non-existent as she gazed around at an environment that was eternal and indifferent to her daunting situation. Centuries could pass and these mountains would be a mirror image of what they were now. Edison's silence didn't help the passing of the time either. The only indicator was the movement of the sun. As she gazed towards the glaring star she saw dark clouds moving toward her position with a seemingly malicious haste. It was accompanied by an ominous fog in the distance formed by a thick snowfall that obscured the horizon.

"Edison I think we're in trouble." Morgan muttered underneath her scarf.

"I see it. It's too early to stop, you'll have to move through it for now at least until it worsens. I'll keep you on the right path."

Just as he replied the first flakes of snow started to fall gracefully from the dark heavens above. Despite her exhaustion, Morgan reluctantly moved forward and her feet began to crunch under freshly laid snow. Subtly the winds began to increase until eventually nature's harsh symphony overtook the panting sounds of her own labour.

The snowfall intensified as her visibility faded. Individual flakes of ice battered against her exposed eyes as it pushed against her progress. She pointed her face down to try and best avoid the punishment and she recognised the deep impressions left by the bear. They must've been fresh otherwise the heavy fall of snow would have covered them. They pointed back from where she was headed from, her heart dropped further.

Morgan stopped instantly, near ripping the rucksack from her back as she began to rummage for the pistol. Her heart hammered through her ears, overcoming the whistling gale as she searched. Just as her hand comfortably reached around the weapon a blood curdling roar ripped out of the invisible distance. Morgan didn't realise it but she was the only food source that the starving bear could detect for miles around.

"It's circled around you, breathe slowly and switch the safety off." Edison spoke calmly. He didn't shout but merely increased the volume so his every word was heard. Either way his relaxed tone did nothing to help Morgan's rapidly growing panic.

A hulking dark mass materialized out of the storm as it came clearer into what little view Morgan had. She reckoned it to be only twenty meters away and that was more than close enough for her. It's heaving breaths left its mouth in growls as hot steam and hungry saliva emerged from sharpened teeth. It wasn't afraid of her, staring her dead in the eyes with something primal and desperately eager.

"Don't move. You can't kill it with that, best to..."

Edison cut off as the bear began a lumbering charge towards her, shifting its enormous mass at an impossible speed. She raised the pistol as quickly as she could but only had the time to discharge one round. It glanced off the beast's shoulder harmlessly as it dipped its head and hammered into her, sending her flying into the air and crashing back down ten feet from where she once stood. Thankfully the snow cushioned the worst off the impact as her already bruised body was briefly immobilised with pain.

It was all she could do just to hold onto the pistol, stunned and crying out in pain she leaned up with blurred vision and fired into the dark mass that moved towards her again. Three shots later the beast roared in agony and rage, nearly deafening her before it ran past her back down the route off the mountain.

Searing pain burned from her ribs and shoulders as she lay within the storm and simply breathed in a vain effort to suck what oxygen there was back into her lungs. Feeling Mother Nature throw everything she could at her, Morgan was on the verge of succumbing to the cold once again.

"Morgan! Get up now!" Edison screamed this time which brought her out of her torpor and she raised herself up with battered muscles.

"Get the shelter raised now. It's your only chance. Stay awake!" He shouted and she obeyed. Crawling over to her abandoned supply bags on her hands and knees, the adrenaline high had crashed and she lacked the energy to even walk.

She felt her teeth chatter together uncontrollably as she reached the bags, pulling them all towards her like they'd blow away as she searched for the compact shelter. She finally found it, in its storage state it was only a box no bigger than the datapad and weighed nearly as much. It wasn't exactly complicated either; featureless apart from a red button. As she pressed it the contents of the box blew forth like an inflatable life raft in the shape of a tent.

It weighed nearly as much as a life raft too and Morgan had to nearly leap onto it to stop the chaotic winds from blowing her salvation away. She dragged down on the zipped portal and threw the three bags inside to weigh it down. Satisfied it was secure, she entered. She had to crouch low to avoid the short roof and took the portable heating unit out one of the rucksacks.

Thankfully the bag had protected the unit from the raging elements and once activated it filled the fragile shelter in a comforting amber light with the heat slowly following. Morgan gazed around at the interior: the tent was only standing due to four pillars inflated with gas. All it would take was a small prick from a small branch flying through the storm and she was as good as dead. She moved each of the bags into corners to help further stabilise it and finally stopped for a moment to try and reach some form of relaxation.

"You did well Morgan, I'm proud of you. As far as I can estimate you reached around seventy percent of the optimum distance you needed to cover today." Edison finally spoke. She didn't have enough air in her lungs to even try to respond.

She was exhausted to her very bones and despite the increasing temperature she couldn't stop trembling. It felt like icy daggers were piercing every pore down to the marrow of her skeleton. She lethargically rid herself of the outer layer of clothing, peeling the sodden garments away like a second skin. All the while the blizzard screamed against her fragile haven, an ever constant reminder of the beautiful, bleak wilderness outside.

Weakly she began to rub her torso, trying desperately to move warm blood from her heart back into her limbs to thaw her suffering. If Edison was talking she didn't hear it, the headset was tossed to the ground beside the discarded wet clothes. Her head needed a moment of privacy but the pistol remained by her side, the thought of the bear coming back for another attack never left her mind. If it did she was dead but she'd rather try to kill it and freeze to death than be ripped apart by claws and teeth.

Feeling something close to average body temperature she took her manufactured sustenance and hydration out and rested them against the heating unit. The water inside the bottle was frozen solid as was whatever travesty was in the ration pack. No doubt some soypro beef that tasted worse than ash. It would fuel her body but would leave the desire for taste malnourished to the point of starving.

She could hear Edison's voice weakly from the headset and detached it from the datapad.

"I wish you'd at least tell me you're going to ignore me Lieutenant."

"Sorry if I needed a goddamn minute. You weren't the one about to be fucking eaten out there." She kept checking her evening meal, impatiently waiting until it was defrosted enough to consume.

"You'll make it through this Morgan. You have to, for all we know those refugees are still alive and we're their only hope."

"Would you quit going on about them and what exactly am I meant to do if they are alive? Lead them off this fucking mountain like some frozen Moses? I wouldn't be surprised if they start eating each other in that unit. Whatever they saw in that city turned most of them into goddamn animals."

"Remember your duty of care." Edison added.

"Yes I fucking remember!" She snapped. "I already told you I'd check it out as is required of me but after that I'll be deciding what I do about it. Now give me some peace and let me rest!" Part of her felt righteous in her outburst but another felt a pang of guilt. Without his instructions she'd be dead but she was too exhausted to act upon that weak human regret.

"Of course." He replied before gratefully leaving Morgan in silence as she consumed her tasteless meal before washing it down with unsatisfying hot water.

Afterwards she spread out the bright orange bedroll, the colour did nothing to aid the underlying cold but at the very least it neutralised the ground temperature as she nestled inside it. She made sure to have the datapad seated so Edison was facing her and kept the gun within reach as always. Finally she zipped it up until only her face was exposed and laid there staring into the artificial fire as the deadly winds howled at a constant pitch. Despite her exhaustion she felt wide awake and feared that the sun would rise without a wink of sleep but slumber overcame her unknowingly and she dreamed of the now comforting sea of space.

Over the course of the lonely night the beast thought it best to find a meal less risky and proceeded down the mountain. With its meagre winter supplies run dry it was forced to scavenge. The hunt for food was forever a desperate affair no matter the season since its life began and a scent always beckoned investigating like the strange new aroma that passed its snow-covered nostrils from a league away. Growing stronger until it arrived at a strange object crashed into the snow, it was ripped open from the impact, resembling the cave from which the bear called home during the worst of winter. The season's bite never truly left this region, even in the thawing months following.

Spilled across the opening were small metal containers, one of which was partially open. It was from this object that the curious scent came from and the beast investigated further. Probing inside with its snout, the hot steam from its exhaled breath shrouded the object, the bear ripped off the lid with ease, a leathery egg resided inside. It rubbed its snout against it, nuzzling the egg until it snapped open with a cracking hiss. The smell became suddenly overpowering and it triggered alarm within the animal's primitive understanding.

The bear retreated, growling in readiness for an attack as something arachnid and foul crawled out swiftly. The bear's instincts suddenly screamed danger and demanded flight. It backtracked across the snow but the creature scuttled along the frozen surface at a frightening pace before leaping onto its face. The bear struggled and roared in defiance but it was all over too fast. The creature extended its skeletal digits around the snout sealing the powerful jaws shut as the tail constricted around the neck. Choking the beast into a quick submission as it secreted acid in further aid of its destiny. Finally, the pharynx slithered between the lips at the rear of the mouth, slinking down the throat and the bear finally crashed down onto the snow, all movement now ceasing.

As the morning sun overcame the higher peaks, its light struck the still body of the bear and the now dead creature lying beside it. It's eight digits curled into itself as its task was completed during the long night. The weather was still as the bear, it's body was covered in hardened snow that had rested in layers as the blizzard threw its final punches before the sun rose. Swiftly an eye opened and the bear's long claws extended from stiff, frozen paws and dug deep into the snow as it roared in utter agony.

It's stomach extended and retracted at a disturbing speed as something punched out from the inside accompanied by the sounds of a wet sack being struck with a hammer. The bear's cries carried long and far into the mountains before its abdomen split open, expelling a mist of body heat as intestines spilled out, turning the snow red with blood. Something writhed within the pool of gore. Skeletal arms tore away at the afterbirth still clinging to its elongated head. Afterwards it gazed around at its surroundings and bounded off into the forest without the slightest hint of fear to grow and continue its purpose.

Morgan launched up from her dreams into the cold morning as the beast's cry was heard from miles around. Instantly she grabbed the pistol. Sticky, bloodshot eyes hunted for a target before her waking mind realised the distance of the sound's origin. Her heart took an age to settle as it beat against her chest, not only from the sound but just merely the fact that she survived the night. The heater still glowed gently into the tent as the datapad flickered to life and Edison's voice sounded off.

"Relax Morgan it's miles away but you need to keep moving."

"Yeah I know." She grunted and repeated the slow cycle of defrosting her breakfast as she readied her clothes, thankfully the heater had dried them out overnight and she shuddered in pleasure as she wrapped herself in their temporary heat. Afterwards she packed up swiftly and exited the tent to a glorious golden sun that cleared her memory of the terrible storm. She deflated and packed the tent, trying her best not to be angered by its awkward disassembly, but finally it was done and she was back on the slow journey off the mountain.

Even with the sun shining down on the barren surroundings, Morgan couldn't shake the feeling that something had changed over the course of the night. Perhaps she was just feeling paranoid due to the altitude sickness but she felt something watching her from a distance. Whatever it was it set her on edge and she unconsciously listened for any sound other than her own footsteps.

She gazed down to see once again that her path followed the now faint impressions left by the bear, once more she was following danger in a desperate snail's pace effort to reach safety.

"It shouldn't attack you again Morgan, no matter how hungry it is, you wounded it and most animals will avoid injury above all else in an effort to survive. In most cases that is." Edison's voice echoed into Morgan's head but it still did nothing to comfort her as she continued her journey.

Step by step she laboured on trying to ignore the monotony and lack of apparent progress from constantly walking through a static environment. The snow acted like white mud that glued to her boots near suctioning her to a stop with every step. Throughout it she mostly looked down to shield what part of her face was exposed to the bitter bite of the chilling breeze that began to creep through the trees. At times she walked with her eyes closed to keep the worst of the sun's blinding light from reflecting off the snow and slowly damaging her eyes.

Lazily she raised her head in a vain hope to see evidence of progress and something caught her eye. It made her stop on the spot as a shot of adrenaline coursed through a heart frozen in fear. Barely recognisable through the thick forest the dark figure leaned against a towering fir tree, it was holding something. Instantly she thought of the bear but even from a mile's distance she could see it was something entirely different.

It stood on two legs as still as a statue, instinctively she knew deep down that it was watching. Squinting her eyes, she thought she could see it holding a deer by the throat but that was impossible. She could feel it reciprocating her gaze without fear or alarm unlike her. Once again she felt like prey, afraid to move, dreading what might happen next.

"Edison." The name escaped from her throat, near clenching her into suffocation with terror.

"I know. I see it. Don't move Morgan. Don't move a muscle." Edison's words rolled out at a crawl and Morgan followed them to the letter, she didn't even risk blinking in case it moved and she missed it.

It continued to stare for the next few moments but in the blink of an eye it moved back into the phalanx of trees away from her. Part of her felt relieved but it dissipated and turned into a distant dread almost instantly.

"What the hell was that? That wasn't the bear was it?" She asked with a trembling voice.

"I'm sorry Morgan." Edison voice was tinged with something resembling despair.

"Sorry about what?" She asked but only received silence as a reply which turned her fear into a warming, righteous rage. "Edison I know you're listening, what are you not telling me?"

"I am unable to provide you with more information. I am collating, please wait." He replied flatly almost like he had recited it a thousand times. "Keep moving otherwise it will find you."

'Keep moving' like she had no other choice, whether she liked it or not she was beholden to his direction. Without it she would wander these hills endlessly when the next storm hit till she died of exposure or worse. She dragged her supplies with gritted teeth. She was angry and it only served to further warm her blood and power her muscles laden with a continuous supply of lactic acid.

She was getting closer, passing more littered areas of debris stabbed deep into the snow by the crash. Paranoia seeped into her thoughts, keeping her constantly alert, checking around every piece of wreckage that could hide whatever new threat she saw in the distance. With every pause to intake oxygen from the tanks she unconsciously caressed the handle of her pistol.

Somewhere hidden within her, instincts from her ancestors continued to press the feeling that she was being watched. That ghostly eyes were shadowing her every step, little did she know that the wraith watching her was eyeless and entirely unnatural.

Every so often the deep crack of snapping wood echoed through the hills, booming with an unrivalled thunder. Each time it spiked Morgan's anxiety into near panic and she would wrench the pistol from her pocket, training the barrel all around her only to see nothing but bare forest. Little did she know that the malevolent being was constantly aware of her presence in its newfound territory.

"Edison?" She pleaded for some kind of confirmation every time her eyes tried to peer through the veil of ancient vegetation. Knowing full well that he was watching every second with far greater perception than she ever could. But only further silence greeted her requests.

Her nerve-shredding journey continued in uneventfulness until the sun lowered itself onto the bladed mountain peaks, signifying the coming night which Morgan wished would never arrive. With Edison's neglectful absence she had never felt more alone and the thought of stopping to camp for the night flooded her soul with a nearly immobilising dread.

Her path took her to a snow shelf offering a higher view of her surroundings. As she climbed the small elevation she could feel the height of her exhaustion. Once she reached the top she gazed down and her eyes recognised the detached module that held the refugees a few hundred meters away. Suddenly her unwanted charge appeared to be her salvation, a safe harbour for the night.

She cared not if those resting inside had perished from the crash, she'd rather sleep with the dead inside an impenetrable tomb than out here with whatever haunted this space. From this distance it appeared intact and darkness was coming fast but either way she wasn't pitching her tent out here.

"Edison I know you're there. If those people are still alive you better speak up and offer some goddamn suggestions on how I'm meant to handle them." She took in a massive drag of oxygen while waiting for a reply. She didn't rely on the oxygen as much thankfully but her condition was far from cured.

"I will Morgan, for now just get down there. Time is of the essence." Still his voice lacked that placebo of false emotion that Morgan and most of humanity had grown accustomed to with the AI that had been a staple of life ever since they were born.

The sun had dropped from the sky with the night stars chasing it down the horizon in the short time it took her to advance on the module. It was nothing more than a cargo unit retrofitted to house two hundred refugees on the short dash trips away from Shanghai. She never saw their faces, part of her never wanted to after hearing some of the stories coming out of the camps. At the time the pay was ridiculously good considering how little she'd have to travel so of course she took it, she persuaded herself and Ford that they'd have been fools not to take it. The irony was not lost on Morgan in her current situation.

As she got closer she saw what remained of the bear she initially encountered far off from the module. The ambient light from the moon and stars above wasn't near enough to help fuel her curiosity. She relieved herself of her supplies and took out her only flare and snapped the top to near blinding results as the magnesium inside ignited, illuminating Morgan's surroundings with a bold red. She held it towards the bear and saw a level of carnage unlike she could ever have imagined.

Now a snow covered mound with a gaping breach at it's flank, intestines were frozen like contorted branches stemming from an icy lake of crimson pooling around the carcass. Morgan could scarcely believe it, so dumbfounded by the sight that she neglected to notice the containers scattered from the module's broken opening.

As she approached it her heart sank to new depths, despite being scared to death of the beast she had never seen anything like that in her life, only artist's depictions in school books. Part of her felt despair for seeing such a grand creature frozen in the throes of such an agonising death. The side of its snout was burned to the soft tissue and bone. Beside it lay a crab-like creature with its multiple limbs curled in like a dead spider. Her thoughts moved to the fatal wound, seeing jagged ribs burst outward, resembling a grotesque mouth spewing out a torrent of gore, she backed away immediately.

"What happened to it Edison?" She asked, her voice barely rising above the hiss of the flare.

"A breach in containment." He simply stated.

"Containment of what?" She asked. Walking past her answer as she snaked a path through scattered containers half submerged in snow from the previous night's blizzard to enter into the module itself through the torn opening. Inside the flare's light revealed rows of encapsulated eggs attached to beams crossing the interior. She counted up to fifty before a squealing cry made her jump out of her skin. She was never given conclusive information about what was going inside the doomed city but she still heard enough snippets from comm traffic between the refugee haulers to realise what she had just stumbled upon.

Instantly turning to the source she squinted through the brightness and saw a deer glued to the wall by indistinguishable whirls of hardened black resin. It moaned more quietly, tensing as it struggled in a hopeless attempt of escaping its regurgitated prison.

She ripped the datapad from her pocket, glaring balefully at the machine like she wanted to throttle the answers out of it. "You knew what was in here and still you led me here!" She screamed.

The screen lit up with the 8-bit representation of what Edison perceived to be his face, the mouth was upturned in a sad smile. "I'm sorry Morgan. Truly I am. I wanted to tell you but I couldn't, the order wouldn't allow it."

"What order?" She asked, trying desperately to contain the tide of anger rolling in waves inside her. Before it reached the boiling point, something massive landed on the roof. Deep thuds sounded through the metal as it manoeuvred above. Morgan's breath caught in her throat; whatever she saw earlier, it was here and it was clear to her that she was nothing more than a prey animal. Sadly, not unlike the one strapped to the wall that began to wail in terror.

She gazed down at the screen, wishing for some sort of guidance. Edison's face disappeared from the screen, replaced by one word that flashed in bold capitals. 'Run'.

She stashed Edison away in her pocket, replacing him with the barely comforting feeling of the pistol. All feelings of exhaustion fled, replaced by a lighting like cocktail of adrenaline and savage horror fuelling her tired muscles. She sneaked towards the opening at a snail's pace, the flare still burned brightly but it signalled her fear with her trembling grip. She walked as slowly as possible towards the door with each step being brought down so slowly it was nearly causing her legs to cramp in an effort to avoid alerting the creature above.

Despite her efforts and the deer's cries masking her steps, the threat above matched Morgan's every footstep, moving parallel to her towards the exit of the module. She stopped just a few paces shy of the opening and the pounding steps above stopped with her. Hunted and Hunter acted in unison one final time as Morgan held her breath, hearing only the flare's burning hiss and her heartbeat hammering tremors through her entire body. She didn't know if it was insanity or some unknown reservoir of courage that she never knew she had but she contained the insurmountable fear and stepped outside into the primal realm of night.

Emerging swiftly she trained her pistol on the roof, her eyes squinting against the biting cold and glaring combustion in her other hand, desperately trying to lay eyes on this new threat. A suicidal curiosity just to see what was now hunting her.

Her wish was granted: it appeared above her with a blood curdling hiss announcing its hostility, she knew now that the pistol she aimed towards the monstrous, black giant would be nothing but useless. Only the upper torso and head were visible, yet she knew it was far bigger than the bear she barely drove off.

It was covered in a black, glassy hide that reflected the moonlight and stars, frozen moisture covering its entire body, cracking with every slight movement and reforming from sub-zero temperatures that seemed to have no effect on it whatsoever. It gripped the edge of the roof with powerful hands that ended at each digit with diamond hard claws, piercing the module's skin with ease as it tensed its whole body, waiting for Morgan's next move.

The horror's smooth, elongated head ended in an eyeless visage of sickening hunger with silver teeth that reflected the flare's light showcasing canines longer than her hands. As still as stone, it bored its intent into her very soul, a gargoyle representing Morgan's doom. The lack of eyes only served to heighten the feeling that Morgan was the entire focus of this creature's alien perception.

She was past the point of terrified into something unreal, it gripped her into immobility. She knew she was already dead. All that awaited her now was an unimaginable suffering. Slowly, a tear dragged downwards and her breathing quickened, creating a constant cloud of steam from her mouth. Her end matched the pace of her respiration with a constant gurgling sound and a slow constant fall of saliva that ran down from the glistening jaws.

It started to click those menacing teeth together to create an unsettling chittering before opening its mouth and revealing a second set of jaws. It made the first move and leapt onto the ground in front of her, despite its tremendous weight it landed with a haunting grace as its full frame was revealed to her.

It moved as a quadruped like the animal that bore it but it moved towards her with the slow anticipation of a nightmarish panther. The scythe-bearing tail trailing behind it with a mind of its own as it flickered with immense power before slicing cleanly along the snow.

She backed away a few paces, the fear choking back her screams into nothing more than desperate whimpers pleading against what was coming. All the while the gun remained trained on it but her trigger finger never applied an ounce of pressure. Part of her wish that it did, pulling it would kill her all the quicker as the angered demon would hopefully rip and tear her ordeal into non-existence.

She took another step back and her back pressed into the hard surface of a severed tree. Before she realised why her retreat halted, a thunderous wave of noise boomed from the treeline to her left. She didn't have the time to ponder who was out there, she dived into the snow as bullets whistled and cracked past her to strike against the creature. They smacked harmlessly against its armoured exoskeleton as it turned towards them, unleashing a roar that nearly deafened Morgan before it dashed away from her into the dark forest away from the moon's revealing light.

It was her chance and she rushed towards her supplies, grabbing only the survival bag and slinging it over one shoulder. Four human figures emerged from the trees and ran towards her; they were unrecognisable due to their clothing covering every piece of their skin, their eyes hidden behind thick goggles.

"You come with us now!" One man said in broken English with a heavy Russian accent. He didn't waste any time with pleasantries and grabbed her harshly, throwing her in the direction they wished to head.

"Go with them Morgan. It's your only chance." Edison said in her ear.

"Yuri!" Another shouted. Before they could turn to see the threat that had burst through the layer of trees it was already on top of them. It was invincible, with an unrecognisable power and unmatched savagery that devoured the concept of mercy.

A few shots were fired, once again bouncing harmlessly off the creature's skin and Yuri, the man that grabbed Morgan died first right in front of her eyes. It swung its massive paw at an incredible speed and his head disappeared in an explosion of shattered skull and brain matter that saturated her in blood. Another hand grabbed her, pulling her away from the ensuing yet hopeless fight. The two other men continued to fire their useless weapons as the beast twisted its body around, the whipping tail striking its bladed tip through one of them. It carried him screaming off his feet until he was speared into the side of the module before massive jaws closed around his skull, popping it open like ripe fruit, ending his brief shrieks of torment.

Morgan didn't see the death of the third; she was too busy running for her life behind the last man towards the shelter of the trees. She didn't see her doomed saviour thrown to the floor effortlessly, screaming as the terror slammed its hands into his chest with all its tremendous weight, caving in his ribs instantly as it crushed his organs into nothing more than soft mush.

She didn't look back, she couldn't. She ran as fast as her petrified body could take her, sweat pouring inside her insulated clothing as she drove through thick brush in an effort to keep up with the group's last survivor. She desperately needed an intake of oxygen but there was no way she could do it without stopping. Another roaring cry carried past them from the creature as it gave chase.

Eventually they broke through the thick brush into a small clearing that sheltered three ancient looking snowmobiles. Her rescuer practically dived onto one of the vehicles, rammed his weapon in its holster on the vehicle and started the engine. She needed no invitation and leapt on, wrapping her arms around him as he accelerated downhill. For those first few seconds relief washed over her near broken body with so much intensity it was overwhelming. Her hope of survival ascended to heights unseen until she glanced to her left.

"I think it's still on your tail!" Edison shouted over the snowmobile's rattling engine.

Behind the veil of trees, the black monster matched their speed creating a stop-motion picture of relentless death. Escape was so close she could almost taste it on the cold wind. Why did this thing insist on pursuing them? She wondered briefly as she wrenched the pistol from her pocket, firing at the shadow of death in an inaccurate and futile effort to keep it away. She had come so far, she had to survive this.

It picked its moment carefully and the rapid, hulking mass of blood thirsty terror leapt out of the treeline. Cannoning into the snowmobile and sending the vehicle and both occupants flying in opposite directions. Morgan felt weightless as she was tossed into the air, her bag slipping from her shoulder as she flew. There was no way she could control her descent this time and before she knew it her back smacked against a thick tree with a sickening crunch.

Pain outside the prospect of definition exploded through her legs and lower back and before she hit the ground and the pain dissipated with an even more worrying numbness. She hit the snow face first and for a few moments she lied there trying desperately to move her legs to no avail. Finally she pushed herself up with her arms as tears streamed down her face from the shock and agony. As she coughed up thick wads of blood she heard Edison's voice faintly scream from the datapad and headset that rested half sunk in the snow beside her.

She crawled wearily towards the device and donned the headset. "Morgan. You need to keep moving, it's somewhere in the trees." As he spoke, a haunting set of hisses and wet growls travelled around the clearing. Giving the impression that the creature was more an entity unto itself rather than something of physical form.

"I can't move." She panted, her voice filled with defeat as she sank back down. "I think my back is broken, I can't feel my legs!" She was openly weeping now as she stared around with her sorrow-watered eyes in an effort to at least see her death coming.

"Where's the vehicle Morgan? There's still a chance. I can't let you die here, not after what they made me do to you." Edison spoke with the closest thing to emotion that Morgan had ever heard from him, he sounded more desperate than she did.

She raised herself once again and searched for the vehicle. It had flipped over nearly thirty yards from where she was now, it was inoperable. The fuel tank was emptying its flammable contents into the absorbing snow. Her nameless companion was further ahead, he was just awakening from the crash and as he climbed onto his feet without issue and he ripped his own sidearm from its holster. Reaching down for a flare ejected from Morgan's ripped bag he swiftly ignited it and screamed in defiant fear at every direction, trying to see the thing that hunted them.

Morgan wailed out in pain as she used her arms to push herself against the tree. "Where is it Edison?"

Her question was answered as hungry pants of desire sounded off from behind the tree she was leaning against. She could feel its hot breath wrap around the bark to descend down her back as massive claws dragged against the bark no more than a few inches to her right side. Ever so slowly she turned her head to see the smooth, featureless face of otherworldly, all-consuming hunger emerge from the shadows.

If it saw her it didn't show it. The alien stared directly towards the panicked man in the distance. She saw the individual strings of sticky saliva trail down to drip in tendrils from the devil's chin. The lips pulled back with a tremoring quiver to reveal those surreal fangs, visibly innocent from the blood that had stained them only minutes before.

It waited until the man had his back turned and slipped past Morgan in a determined gallop as silent as the grave towards its victim. It owned the darkness with a mesmerising grace, appearing more as an avatar of quiet destruction than a creature born from this plane of existence. A wraith conceived in the night terrors of gods.

His death wasn't a quick one: it pierced and slashed away at him without killing him outright. His pitiful wails of agony cast a prediction of her fate across the clearing and all she could do was watch. His weapon and the flare were tossed aside leaving him defenceless. He tried to crawl towards her, his eyes begging for help, for any escape from the pain. He managed to crawl a few metres before it sank both its clawed hands into his back. In one savage motion it ripped out both his shoulder blades along with his ribs and lungs in a spray of crimson. Feasting on whatever remained inside the blood eagle as hot mist crawled around its body, absorbing every essence of what he once was.

"Morgan your bag!" Edison called out to the survival rucksack that was lying close to the wrecked snowmobile. Ripped open from the crash, its contents including the oxygen tanks were discarded along the snow. As she saw the bag, she recognised her rescuers primary weapon lying sunken in the snow only ten paces away.

"I can't reach it." She made one last effort to reach the large firearm, desperate to somehow do something in an effort to defy the inevitable. It was an old model pump action shotgun, thankfully undamaged unlike her pistol which was nowhere in sight. She picked up the headset and crawled back to the tree and leaned against it as a fresh wave of pain overtook her. The creature heard her and hissed in triumph, slowly walking towards her; it knew she wasn't going anywhere.

"Shoot it, shoot the oxygen tanks!" Edison called out as the beast closed in.

She hefted the weapon to her shoulder and attempted to aim at the target but her vision swam into a blur for a few seconds as the pain drove her into nausea. "I can't see it!" She fired in desperation and the buckshot went wide missing both her target and the beast who hissed in return of the harmless projectiles, believing they were directed towards it.

"Breathe. I'll tell you when." Edison said. He was watching everything, calculating from his perspective the exact point when Morgan's shaking hands aimed the weapon towards the tanks. Now it was all a matter of timing as to when the creature was close enough. Morgan's sight still couldn't focus but she knew well enough if she missed her chance she couldn't stop it.

"Trust me Lieutenant." The creature had just walked past the snowmobile and was now directly between the vehicle and the tanks. It grinned it's deadly smile as it tasted triumph.

"Now!" He ordered and she squeezed the trigger. Morgan's lucky star had placed everything perfectly for this moment and as the pellets struck home, the explosion blinded her blurred eyes like the sun.

A white hot flash engulfed the alien followed by an even bigger secondary explosion from the vehicle's fuel tank. The horrific and pained cries of the creature accompanied a deafening boom and it sank to the ground as the explosion died down to simmering flames levitating on the snow atop burning fuel. But, despite the large gaping wounds in its exoskeleton, leaking corrosive blood that sizzled deep into the unseen earth, it got back up again and charged her.

"Fire Morgan! Keep Firing!" He screamed.

She obeyed and with each shell discharged she shrieked out a cry of everything she had left, her desperation, rage, fear and instinct. She thought it would just bounce off like before but the explosion had torn away its armour, leaving several openings which the shotgun blasts sank into and finally it went down with a crashing halt, just shy of where she laid. Morgan couldn't see if it had completely ceased all movement and kept cocking and discharging the firearm even after it had run dry of ammunition.

"It's down Morgan. You did it!" Edison sounded just as elated as she was. It confused her due to his recent betrayal but she could barely focus on breathing, let alone wasting her energy pondering that odd contradiction.

She leaned her head back against the tree and slowly began to laugh hysterically for a moment before it turned into tearful weeping as the physical consequences of her ordeal overcame her. Pain racked every inch of her body, including her paralysed legs. Each breath brought fresh agony as blood spurted from her mouth with each spasming cough. She stared up and finally her vision cleared to a sight worthy of dying in front of.

Amongst the clear sky an aurora had emerged from the curtain of the clear, dark heavens, streaming beneath the stars with ghostly, awe-inspiring colours. It was as if god was trailing his hands through the moving current of the rainbow and despite her pain and the bitter cold. Morgan started to feel warm again. Her eyes grew ever more heavy and the pain slipped away.

"I don't feel cold anymore Edison."

"That's good Morgan, that's good. I'm sorry I betrayed you. I tried so hard to override..." His reply was cut off by a whispering hush.

"It doesn't matter. It'll be over soon won't it?" She asked, gazing at the natural glory above her last stand. She never looked down to the defeated titan at her feet. Her battle was over. She had fought the odds like a Valkyrie and she was ready to accept her end with pride.

"If anyone else comes here, tell them to leave my body." Another spout of retching coughs interrupted her. "If there's such a thing as a heaven, I liked to think that it might have a sky like that above it."

"You're not going to die Morgan."

"I thought you were done lying." She smiled

"You're right. I'm so sorry, for everything."

"Just let me sleep Edison." Her eyes were growing ever more heavy, she relieved herself of the headset and placed it by her side.

Edison didn't say another word, merely watching Morgan as she stared up into the sky until she exhaled the final warm breath from her body and fell into the eternal sleep. Her eyes remained open to the beauty of the world before the war, before the fall.

As the sands of time trickled away over the months the world and all its remaining occupants burned and died in its final days. Edison watched her until the datapad's power supply depleted and he faded completely from existence. Morgan's body laid there preserved by the endless cold with her final smile remaining as eternal as the mountains surrounding it.


	4. The Tides of Night

The Tides of Night

I remember as a child how war was presented to me. Like most children my first experience of war was through film. Those scripted pieces of supposed art that were as naïve as I was. Where the hero vanquished scores of enemies without so much as a scratch before setting off into the sunset. Oh how I admired those heroes when I was young and ignorant to the real nature of war.  
In reality, war was a different beast. Unceasing in its power to turn everything beautiful into ruin and decay. The movies didn't teach you of how someone's insides look when they're ripped apart. How they scream as their legs are blown off. How grown men piss themselves in fear of that final agonizing breath.

War is a dirty, brutal business where fairness and morality is a dream. It's a cut throat realm that turns the best of men into savages and cold blooded psychopaths. It brings out the worst in people and yet also the best of those rare few. I wasn't one of those, after an hour in this forsaken land I already felt myself being broken, piece by piece until something I didn't recognize remained.

I couldn't physically show my despair any more. My throat was ripped apart from the violent bouts of vomiting until all that was left were agonising dry retches. Every effort to breathe was filled with these ripping wails that I had no control over. I struggled to even open my bloodshot eyes. Behind thin veils of skin, the orbs pulsed with each heartbeat as it ascended to panicking heights. We were drawing ever closer to the Wall.

From my position in the rear of the armoured vehicle I couldn't physically see the deserted streets outside. The unsettling quiet, the roads barren of their former vitality when the city's residents hurried along in their daily struggle to make ends meet.

Yet something within me, some primal instinct from aeons of evolution sent dread flooding through my body. Screaming at me to turn away from this path, to run as fast and as far as I could from my destination. Yet there was no way back, my journey was taking me forward towards a darkness I could never imagine. I was a passenger in this mechanized procession down the river Styx. So I lay there, my body weightless against the chassis, feeling every inch of terrain the wheels rolled over inside my weakened gut.

The vehicle eventually rolled to an abrupt stop and the squad lazily made their way out the exit hatch, but Takumi sat beside me for a moment. He stared at me with something akin to pity, or at least an attempt at pity. It felt almost soulless bar the merit behind it.

"We're here Civvie, it's time to go." He said as a firm hand rested on my shoulder. I looked up to him, the shock of what I had seen laid bare on my face. "I know you're no stranger to warzones, you've seen death before, you'll see it again. Now get up before I drag you out of this vehicle."

"What I saw wasn't war!" I shouted, tendrils of saliva straining outward from my lips. "That boy wasn't a combatant! You murdered him and burnt the body like it was nothing but meat!" I shouted at him with some misplaced sense of righteousness, I still couldn't wrap my head around what I saw bursting forth from the child's burning body. That screaming serpent.

"Yes I murdered him, I'd have done it sooner if I knew he was a carrier." He paused for a moment, itching the stubble around his dirt-smeared face. He looked to his hands before picking up his rifle and I could see them trembling just like my own. "What you saw was nothing compared to what's happened here over the past two weeks. You're right, this isn't war, this is something else. Everyone here has innocent blood on their hands and we're all well aware of it. I only ask that you don't judge us until you know what's going on here."

He slung his arm under my own and raised me up on unsteady legs before reaching for the handgun left ownerless on the seat beside mine. Picking up the pistol he wiped the slide against his trouser leg, leaving a bloody smear on his camouflaged fatigue. Takumi then held it forward towards me. "You ready to do what you came here to do?" He asked me. All I could do was nod as I reached for the gun.

He made the effort to lock his eyes onto mine before letting go of the weapon. "Remember what I told you. There's fifteen rounds in the magazine, leave one for yourself just in case. Suicide is better than ending up like that boy."

I didn't nod but still he patted me on the shoulder. "You got a headcam?"

I had completely forgotten my original purpose in being here. Rummaging through my pack, I found the small device attached to a head-strap and pulled it on. The first images it recorded were of the where I had just been sitting. The floor around it covered with bloodied vomit and spent bullet cases. I had decided already that none of this footage was getting edited out, I wanted it as raw as I felt it.

Without another word, we exited the APC and the first thing that hit me was the smell. Initially, the scent made me think of cooking meat and then I thought of the boy's body burning. The smell of skin, muscle and fat being burned off the bone. It was more than a scent: it was an ambient, greasy aroma that clung to my clothes, sinking into the fibres. No amount of washing would ever erase it. I couldn't yet see the source, but I saw the billowing smoke rising up into the sky, overshadowed by the Wall.

Standing over fifty feet tall, it towered over the buildings underneath its shadow like a tidal wave frozen in steel. It was a crude black monolith that rebelled against the bright sky. It looked more like a medieval construction than anything fabricated in the current age of energy weapons and space travel. Its smooth surface was spattered with dried blood trails that had originated from the walkway above.

Makeshift stairs were welded onto the side of the monstrosity and I could see figures patrolling along the top. Objects were hung from the battlements, dangling from thick ropes, but I couldn't make out what they were quite yet. From what I could see though, there were no barriers whatsoever on the walkways so if anyone was to fall, they would barely have time to scream before their bodies struck the concrete below.

"It took only two days for the engineers to build it, not to mention the fleet of terrestrial haulers that flew it all in. Any longer and we would've all died trying to hold them off. The Captain said it was one of the greatest feats of human engineering ever accomplished. Damn thing goes all the way south to Jinshan up to northern Jiading. It's over a hundred kilometres of solid steel, twelve feet thick. Don't ask me how they did it, we we're all too busy fighting for our lives, slipping in each other's blood to look back."

It was indeed an incredible feat, but all the while I was thinking what could possibly be inside the quarantine zone to warrant such a structure. Then I finally focused on what lay below it. We exited the vehicle a couple blocks away from the Wall. We couldn't have made it any further without running over the dozens of portable structures that littered the streets, covering every piece of ground that they could. Tents, containers, vehicles and other shelters were erected around a singular building; a hospital.

I couldn't make out any more of the area due to the crowds of soldiers that stood in formation under the shadow of the Wall. These were the new arrivals that I had flown in with and they looked just as nervous as I felt. Every head was turned high towards a singular figure standing on a balcony resting on the upper floors of the hospital. The figure's distorted voice rang out through the quiet streets as Takumi led me past the crowds of unblooded youth listening to their commanding officer. I could only catch the ending of his speech but it was enough for me to grasp the magnitude and desperation of what was going on here.

"Make no mistake. We are under siege by a horrific and monstrous enemy. That fear you feel is natural but you will have to fight it as hard as you fight these abominations! Because they will both most assuredly usher you into the grave! Those who run will be shot on sight, those who run further will be tracked down and hanged."

It was then that I recognized what was hanging from those ropes. The bodies were hung sequentially so as to spread the message as far as possible. I'd come to find out later that being hung wasn't the worst of it: the executed deserters were called by the older surviving soldiers either Breakers or Swingers. The Breakers were the lucky ones whose necks snapped instantly as the rope reached its length. The Swingers survived the drop and suffered through suffocation and cerebral hypoxia until their eyes bulged out of their sockets from the noose around their necks. The sight of their purple bloated faces and unnaturally distended tongues seemed to add to the stench of rot in unsettling ways.

It horrified me more that I didn't feel the disgust that I knew I should've felt at the time, it seemed that the boy had driven the weakness out of me. His death allowed me to continue on without being inconvenienced by shock. For now at least. It wouldn't last long.

The commander's speech continued: "I look at all of you and I feel an immense pride that I've been blessed to command you brave young souls. Now show me that pride isn't unjustified and let's take back this city from the enemy!"

The new troops responded in a unified roar of confidence that echoed through the empty streets that surrounded the makeshift base. They seemed so confident, each one trusting in their own destiny that they'd survive this.

I knew that feeling all too well from my times in conflict zones, that no bullet would have my name on it, that no step I took would trigger a mine. That death would stay his hand from my form. I didn't get that feeling here, death was in every atom of air I breathed.

As we drew further away from the recruits Takumi spoke in a low voice. "Most of those kids haven't even completed basic training yet. Most of them won't survive the night." There he was again with that almost careless voice, surely he couldn't be so cold.

"Why are you bringing in raw recruits? Where's your navy? Why does your government not disclose what's going on here?" I asked. If things were so bad here, it seemed like madness that the Chinese military hadn't pleaded for aid from other nations.

"Those are questions better left for the Captain when you meet him. You could try and persuade him but he's not the one running this shitshow." Takumi spoke as we passed the columns of portable tents housing soldiers that couldn't fit in the hospital. What struck me was the lack of voices from this area: all the soldiers were circled around their tents in an unnatural silence.

Ignorant of typical hygiene regulations, their uniforms were burdened with all manner of stains. From smoke to dirt and blood, no one here was fit for inspection, yet inspection was for peace time. These troops were suffering under the cruel beast known as war. Some returned my glances with their own, their eyes visibly absent of something vital to being human.

"All I can tell you is that most of our Navy is out of the system on deployment." Takumi continued on as we weaved past the tents. "Hell, what we'd give for an Assault Carrier, or a Destroyer, just one would change things here. Yet here we are fighting an enemy more dangerous than anything we've ever faced with reservists." He spat out a wad of phlegm, coughing loudly before finishing. "All we have here are old men and children who've never fired their weapons before. I reckon we'll last another few days if the attacks keep coming at this rate. Anything bigger and we're fucked."

As we reached the corner of the next street, that same smell of burning meat grew stronger. One second it was noticeable, the next it was nauseating. If I hadn't been so violently sick earlier, I would've been soon enough. In front of us marched a procession of soldiers, clad in full-body overalls with gas masks covering their faces, robbing them of all appearance of individuality, they were only mechanisms in a larger machine. What they carried hammered home to me that any sense of humanity died here.

In pairs they shared the burdens of fellow humans; at least what was recognisable as human. The bodies they carried were still smoking, the clothes they once wore stripped by ignited fuel, leaving their naked bodies covered in hideous burns and blisters. Others had the skin seared from their bodies leaving the muscle tissue and stark white of exposed bone visible.

The convoy of industrialised, faceless carnage continued on down the empty street to our right towards a black smouldering pile of corpses. It was near unrecognisable apart from the limbs protruding outward, breaking the mound's silhouette as the bodies seemed to reach out from death. Once each pair reached the mound, they unceremoniously tossed the bodies onto the pile.

Even in such a damaged state, some still retained recognisable features. One was clearly the body of a young woman. Half her face had survived the roaring flames, the other half was ravaged until the skull and empty eye socket were exposed. A single patch of long, thick black hair remained rooted to her scalp. Her remaining eye staring into my very soul as her charred carcass passed me by. It sent a cold and unclean feeling crawling down my spine. It was like the filth of this place was trying to take up residence inside me, like some sort of parasite.

The young, the old and those blessed in their prime, all were equal in the absence of mercy that they had been purged in. As the last pair of these shamans of slaughter tossed their burden onto the mound, a few began to heave copious amounts of fuel from jerry cans onto the fresh corpses. Once they were suitably drenched one figure produced a zippo style lighter and ignited the pyre. As the flames licked upward to the sky, the wind funnelled the smell down the street towards us. The smell was so strong now, it was as if the souls of those burning bodies were screaming their last disgusting breath of anguish.

"Priority one. Containment at all costs." Takumi spoke as he stared towards the body pyre, his voice absent any emotion. I was lost for words at so many things but the most alarming was the Sergeant's apparent indifference to what had just occurred. How many times had he seen this ghoulishness, how much suffering and death had it taken to make him so jaded?

"If a carrier is discovered in one of the pens, procedure is to incinerate all inside. We can't afford a single one of those things past the perimeter." As he finished speaking, the haunting figure that lit the fire walked towards us, his eyes invisible behind the thick lens of the gas mask. The figure pulled the heavy mask off to reveal feminine features, her smooth skin stained with smoke and grime. It only served to heighten the ferocity in her eyes as she flashed him a look of curiosity.

"Pen seven?" Takumi asked nodding towards the flames.

"Yeah, old guy came in last night with a small party, somehow skipped the scan. Some of the teams have been talking today. Think it's about time for the priest to go?" She kept flashing me looks, I knew I didn't belong here but that didn't stop her cold, uncomfortable glances from reminding me.

"About fucking time. What happened?"

"Tried to turn one of the flamers on us when we torched the pen. Who's this?" She nodded towards me as she lit a cigarette, the lighter and her hands were spattered with dots of blood. The familiar scent of cigarette smoke was a reprieve from the torched flesh that filled my lungs. The addiction I had abolished was rearing its ugly head, that pathetic need to feel it burn my throat like an old friend, feeding me that sweet nicotine.

Dammit this wasn't the place for manners but my brain foolishly thought otherwise and my hand shot out automatically. "David..." I paused as I remembered my hand was a mirror image of hers, dotted with the life force of another. It always seemed like such a precious commodity, yet here its value was cheaper than the stench-filled air I breathed. I kept forgetting the blood-drenched state of my appearance. It felt like the sickness of this place was slowly infecting me.

"Looks like you've already got your hands dirty, David." Maybe it was just paranoia but the way she said my name unnerved me, like I wouldn't live long enough here for her to actually make an effort to remember my name.

Takumi looked towards me, checking my body from head to toe. I could only imagine how bad I looked. I didn't know whether the smell was coming from me or from everything around me. My clothes didn't feel as wet any more as the blood and bile dried into the synthetic fabrics.

"A boy missed the transport, we were gonna bring him back here but he started birthing an embryo on the trip back."

The stone-hearted woman clearly reacted in surprise. "Jesus. Inside the vehicle?" She asked to which Takumi only replied with a quick nod.

"Had to throw him from the vehicle and finish him quick." Even with the nonchalant manner that Takumi had worded the event, I could see in his face that the memory didn't sit comfortably with him. Perhaps that was my mind placing regret onto his features for my own sake. "You better get back up there. They're bound to have a go soon after losing one of the embryos."

"Been nearly a half hour and still nothing yet, but yeah. You're right." Without a word towards me she bypassed us and headed straight for the Wall as we continued on our path towards the hospital. As we drew closer the smell of the burning bodies started to be replaced by a pungent odour. I couldn't hope to describe the severity of what I smelt but it set my tortured stomach on edge once more.

The hospital itself wasn't particularly large, if anything it looked more like a typical clinic, lacking any separate entrance for emergency casualties. Three stories high its white exterior was clouded black with heavy smoke stains. The entrance was facing east towards the Wall and as we turned the corner to reach it, I saw where they kept the survivors.

Set in a single row going on for as long as I could see the Wall were multitudes of high roofed pens. Built like cages with thick steel bars built over chain-link wire. Each one housing maybe thirty to forty refugees. I honestly couldn't get an accurate count. They were crammed in, living on top of each other in a state of squalor that sickened me. What I smelled was the pungent odour of human waste, disease and death.

These poor people had survived whatever horror lay beyond the Wall only to be treated worse than cattle, herded into these pens where they were forced to live in each other's filth. A subtle chorus of lamented wailing whispered through this side of the Wall. A haunting air of melancholy that haunted everyone it reached, consuming any desperate grasp of positivity like a vampire.

I now understood why their companions in suffering had acted the way they had back at the landing site. They seemed no longer human, turned feral through torment and the primal necessity of survival.

Almost on cue, soldiers surrounded the cages and my heart sank. At first I thought they were going to shoot them but what came next was perhaps worse. The soldiers started throwing foil packets of food rations inside the pens, with no sense of control or order the civilians threw themselves at each other in abandon like starved beasts. That same wailing I had heard before was replaced by screaming, guttural snarls and shrieks that pierced the seemingly quiet atmosphere around the area. Yet none of the troops seemed to be concerned, like this depravity was the norm here.

"If you ask me they're better off dead. And some of them know it." He pointed towards one of the pens where a dead man was dangling from the roof. He was practically naked, emaciated to the point that his skeleton could be seen trying to break free from the skin. His clothes were wrapped tightly around his neck and his fellow tenants couldn't care less.

"It ain't easy to get it to work in there but some of them do. Others find a sharp piece of metal or glass and cut away till they're gone."

Takumi didn't seem fazed by the sight whatsoever as he walked back to force my frozen form forward. He never took his arm off me while escorting me inside. Before entering, I took one last look at the men, women and children scrapping for a morsel of food only to finally see the still forms leaning against cage walls; the ones that didn't survive the disgusting melee for sustenance.

Finally in the hospital I noticed the smell was being combated by the sterilizing agents stored inside, giving rise to a war of scents where all were equally horrid. Just by the door was a high mirror. I imagined that before all this, some pretty woman must've used it to check her hair and make up before going to see the doctor about something trivial. Now I gazed at myself, barely recognizing the look in my eyes, not even recoiling at the dark stains marring my clothing. I hadn't even been here a day and already this place was changing me.

Takumi made a move to force me on once more, without thinking I smacked his grip away, turning towards him with outrage boiling over in my throat.

"Do you even stop to think about what it might be like for those people in there? Jesus Christ!" I cried out, turning on the spot, trying to move away some of the thoughts raging inside me and before I knew it I was on the ground.

The strike wasn't hard enough to knock me unconscious, though I didn't doubt the Sergeant could if he tried. But through some twisted mercy it helped me focus back on him, I was feeling something different than rage but it was muted the second I met his eyes. One wrong move and he could kill me without punishment or even so much as a second thought.

"I had to guard the Wall while my wife and two sons suffered in those pens so don't you fucking dare get righteous on me." Saliva spattered from his lips as he shouted at me, the whites of his eyes were visible in his murderous glare. He seemed to take a mental deep breath and compose himself. I thought he was about to say more, but instead, he paused for a moment and the crimson left his face.

"I don't think you've yet grasped the severity and scale of what's going on here but you will. We're undermanned and under supplied. Those rations! Those are ours! We can't ship in extra supplies for them because we can't fit it in amongst all the ordnance we need. We can't simply let them go either because sooner or later a carrier is gonna be amongst them and then we're all fucking dead!" He stormed away towards the next door, holding it open he looked back at me.

"We're suffering too, you wanna come see? Write some notes, take some video for your fucking bullshit story?!"

I didn't say another word, I couldn't. I simply followed him through and realised exactly what he meant once we entered the wards.

The smell of blood crashed against me like an aura materialised into force and as far as my eyes could see lay the injured, dead and dying. Medically trained personnel rushed around in a constant, frantic speed between patients, their plastic aprons criss-crossed with crimson smears. No bed was empty and when the beds ran out, the doctors and medics had to use what floor space was available.

I had to watch my step as I tiptoed over the wounded soldiers. I passed over three before something grabbed my leg forcing me to stop. Looking down I saw a young man holding onto my calf with whatever strength he had left. His face was covered with an unhealthy sheen of sweat and his skin was as pale as snow. He was struggling to breath as blood poured erratically out of his coughing mouth. He was dying, choking on his own blood from an internal injury.

I wanted to lean down and try and comfort him somehow but before I could, I was shoved out of the way by a medic. She checked him and looked over to a doctor nodding her head from side to side before leaving him. A few seconds later two soldiers moved to grab his legs and they dragged him away. There was no effort to ease his suffering, he was dead already and had only to suffer through it as he was dragged away like waste meat, still fighting for his final breaths. His weak screams only bringing on more torment as he faded from life alone and abandoned.

Takumi motioned me on once more and I waded through the slurry of blood, shit, piss and tears. Not a single bullet wound was present. Most of the casualties carried gruesome slashing injuries or hideous punctures. I passed three in-progress amputations in one room alone, their bellowing screams of pain practically pushing me on just to escape the sound.

I also noticed that some bore strange burns, more like corrosive burns than traditional fire- based wounds. These were the most grotesque as the victims were experiencing seizures with gaping holes through their bodies. Most of these were designated dead on arrival and dragged away screaming. Euthanasia wasn't a priority here and neither was decency. I had a growing suspicion that ammunition was considered too valuable to expend on these poor miserable souls.

We exited the wards on this level into a stairwell and I was shamefully grateful for the brief quiet. I had to stop for a moment halfway up the stairs and thankfully Takumi allowed me at least that.

"Those are all casualties from last night's attack. The ones that survived or weren't taken anyway." He looked at his hands again and once more I could see the incessant trembling.

"No fire caused the burns they suffered." I said, half statement, half question. I noticed I was panting, trying to catch my breath. There was so much pain in the air of those rooms, it overwhelmed me.

"You're right. The docs theorized that the creatures carry a molecular acid for blood. Shoot one on the street and its blood's gonna melt through a good few feet of concrete. Goes through steel like piss through toilet paper. You saw what it does when it touches skin.

Takumi lit another cigarette and held it towards me. I'll admit I was tempted, it was insanity. Part of me came to the conclusion that I could probably die here but I was worried about how smoking would affect my health. I declined and he slouched down against the wall opposite me. I always felt grateful for my health when I visited a hospital when nothing was wrong with me, now I just felt guilty.

"I lost a corporal on the botanic fields when they were building the Wall. A decent kid with dreams of honour and valour. Got impaled in the stomach by the tail of one of those things right here." He punched against his armour around the stomach area.

"He was dying already but the dragon hadn't finished. It pulled itself in with its tail and he unloaded his rifle at it. Filled it with more holes than you could count, covered his whole body with its blood and within a few seconds he was gone. Nothing. No body, no armour, nothing. Just gone. Didn't even have the chords left to scream."

"Even with all the shouting and gunfire we could hear him melting away, sizzling." As he was saying that he stubbed the cigarette before getting back up. "C'mon the Captain is this way."

We continued upwards to the third floor, the screams of the wounded following us all the way as we passed by more wards. There were no minor injuries: it was a case of if you could hold a gun you could fight. Eventually we reached what must've been the Captain's quarters.

Takumi entered first, holding me at arm's length from the doorway for a moment before we both entered. In contrast to all the ruin and squalor I had encountered since setting foot in Shanghai, the Colonel's quarters were like what his office must've been back at whatever base he was originally from. Presentable, organised, civilised. An oasis of order amongst the depravity and chaos.

Nothing seemed dishevelled or out of place, apart from a single bunk that was situated at the far end of the room. But even the bed was made perfectly to the highest standard of inspection.

The Captain himself was as clean as a whistle in his dress uniform, perfectly shaven. His face was surrounded by the steam arising from a freshly made coffee resting in clean hands. The pistol resting beside him was in factory condition, like it had never been fired.

At the time I may have not liked Takumi but at least I was finally was beginning to understand why he and the other troops acted like they did. Instantly I had a dislike for the officer sitting in front of me.

"You armed this civilian Sergeant?" Not even an introduction as the Captain eyeballed the soldier behind me.

"Yes sir. I saw it fitting regarding his proximity to a possible contact. He has been instructed to turn it on himself in the event he is captured. As you say Captain "One less body is one less enemy."

The Captain stood up and faced the window leading to the balcony outside with his hands clasped behind his back. "Thank you Sergeant that'll be all. Wait outside and rest a moment."

"Yes sir." Takumi replied before twisting on his heel and marching out the room in perfect form. The Captain clearly demanded a high degree of respect. Or was it just blind obedience to any sense of order that remained in this hellish place?

I'd interviewed commanding officers before and it never goes the same way twice. To order soldiers into death's jaws requires a unique personality and strength of mind, for those that did it well at least. But this was no ordinary situation and this Captain was clearly no ordinary officer.

Neither of us spoke for those initial moments, we both shared whatever silence was possible amongst the animalistic noises from the city's refugees outside. I decided to go first but before I could even open my mouth he cut me off.

"You'll have many questions, I can imagine a lot of them concern the way things have been handled in this grave situation." He spoke with his back still facing me.

Even with my clothes saturated in dried blood and my memories filled with the horrors of what was happening here, I finally felt like I was in control for once. I was in familiar territory and as the Captain returned to his seat, I was armed to the teeth with questions.

"Ask your questions Mr Crook and I'll answer what I can, is that fair enough?" He asked and to which I nodded.

"Captain, this place is an information black site. Speaking from what I've seen, no other nation has any idea whatsoever what is going on here. Why bring me, a British journalist here when your country is working so hard to conceal all this?"

"I had you smuggled here because I want an unbiased account of what's happening here. My government have seen it wise to conceal the nature of the threat to the international community. If my superiors find out you're here I'll be probably executed for treason."

"You mean just like those men hanging from those ropes outside." It was too soon in the conversation to ask that question and I was damning myself for being so amateurishly forward.

The Captain sat with the question for a second and personally I thought that was it and that the interview was over.

"Have you ever been in a siege Mr Crook?" He asked, staring me dead in the eye.

"No, the last recorded siege was on LV 202 and that was a decade ago."

"Correct, sieges are generally considered one of the most savage instances of warfare. It's as much about morale as it is about numbers and weaponry. One man succumbs to his fear during battle and runs. Fear spreads like the plague and before you know it there's no one to man the defences." He stood up again and faced the window, I was beginning to get the impression he didn't want to maintain eye contact for much longer.

"Lose the morale and you've lost the siege and make no mistake Mr Crook, we're under siege. If we fail here, the gates to Earth will open to these creatures and no amount of nukes will stop them. They spread like a plague so the seed of desertion has to be uprooted before it can be spread."

"Morale is hard to upkeep when your men are murdering innocent civilians." I pushed the ball this far, I had to keep it going.

"You see my quarters and my appearance and think that I refuse to get my hands dirty?" He asked rhetorically.

"Wouldn't be the first time an officer hides behind his men." It wasn't a direct accusation but I sure as hell was trying to imply it.

"Do you have any children David?" He used my first name, I had definitely struck a nerve.

"No I've never been lucky enough to find a woman that could deal with the nature of my work." Try having a relationship when you're away for months sometimes years in cryo and your other half has spent all that time alone, or perhaps not alone at all.

"I was very much the same for a time until luck found me and we had a son together. He was a good boy who followed in my footsteps and joined the military. He didn't have the same ambition that I did at his age, he merely wanted to serve." As he spoke the pride in his voice was as clear as the orange sun that blazed through the balcony window.

"We were both sent here from leave, home from our current tours past the outer rim, his body is in that pyre you passed down the street."

The air suddenly changed in the room and I started to regret my aggressive questioning. "Sir I'm so sorry I shouldn't have pressed you."

"No you're doing what your profession requires and I'd expect no less. He was taken by the creatures while in the quarantine zone on patrol, only a week or so ago. The days seem to meld together here." He paused to look at a framed photo sat on the desk facing away from me. His eyes betrayed the sense of remorseful longing in his eyes as he stared at the picture.

"Back then we really didn't understand the nature of our enemy and I thought I'd never see him again. I was inconsolable that night and against my wishes. I had to be sedated while my lieutenants took command of the section."

His hands grew visibly tight and began to tremor in his grip. "That night as I rested in a drug-induced sleep we came under heavy attack. We nearly lost the Wall. I woke up to my lieutenants dead and troops on the verge of panic. Carriers began to flow in with the refugees and quarantine was nearly broken before midday. With no system in place we simply shot them at the gates, allowing access to no one."

"Then a spotter identified my son running towards the gate, I couldn't believe it. My little Li was alive, I didn't think of quarantine, frankly I didn't care. I ordered the gates open and welcomed my boy right there. At first I didn't think, I was too relieved to see him alive."

I knew what was coming but I didn't dare breathe, it was clearly tearing this man's soul apart to retell this story.

"I already knew he was infected before the medic even checked him, he knew it too but he ran all that way for a sense of control over his own death. He wanted my pistol to end his life. I couldn't allow him that dishonour and so I did the deed myself."

He paused for a moment, the muscles of his jaws clenching his teeth down to crushing strengths. "I aimed at the base of his skull and after a few seconds I pulled the trigger. It was as much mercy as I could give him. To feel no pain at the end."

I looked towards the bed and realised the reason it was so tidy wasn't that he kept it that way it was that the poor bastard had probably not slept for a full hour since sticking a bullet in the back of his son's skull.

I will never forget what I saw come out of that dead boy's chest, that serpentine abomination. Whatever these things were, they couldn't possibly be as terrifying as what they had forced these humans to become. These pitiful damned souls that were shackled to this wretched place. This living Hell.

"I think that our conversation has run its course Mr Crook. I trust that you have recording equipment with you?" He finally turned back to face me and I could finally see through the facade he wore for his troops. He was weary to the bone and clearly wanted to be left alone.

"Yes Captain."

"Good, you have my blessing to record everything that you deem necessary. You'll be on the next resupply flight that leaves the day after tomorrow. In the mean time I'll leave you under the care of Sergeant Takumi. He'll look after you, he's always served me with distinction and honour, even here. That'll be all."

I collected my rucksack and proceeded to head to the door but I couldn't leave it at that, I'd gotten the man so wrong. "Captain, for what it's worth I'm truly sorry about your son."

The captain was sat back at his desk again, the pistol sitting ominously close to his steady hand. "Thank you Mr Crook but I'm grateful that he didn't live long enough to become a monster." Did he mean the serpent or the men under his command?

Takumi was waiting outside, the walls weren't thick. He had heard everything . He didn't make a comment about the conversation with the Captain as we took the same route back through the hospital. Navigating through the wards I noticed that the number of wounded present had lowered. Jesus as I sat upstairs conducting an interview people had died right underneath my feet. It was a harrowing thought but the Captain wanted me to do my job and that's what I was going to do.

Finally we left the building and the sun was beginning its descent back down towards the western horizon. The slow shadow would begin to come down on the Wall as night fell, but at the very least that wasn't for another couple hours.

"What now?" I asked Takumi. I felt like I had seen enough of the devastation and the macabre to last a life time, but the night was still young.

" Now Civvie. You're going up there with me. It's time you saw what remains of our great city." Takumi started walking towards the stairs and I followed.

As we climbed up the stairs, the height suddenly became all too real. I stared down at the gaps between each step and saw the drop heighten. It didn't help that the stairs audibly winced every couple of steps, or that my boots were sticking to the grated surface from the fresh layers of congealed blood. With every step I could feel someone's blood suctioning my feet to the steps with a wet tear as my boots separated from the metal.

We reached the summit and I looked to the east, towards the destruction, an entire city razed to the ground and shattered beyond imagination.

Takumi stood beside me. He knew what was coming before I even did as my sense of balance weakened. A steady hand kept me from losing my footing as my eyes blinked away the stinging smoke. Thick clouds of permeating ruin that sailed on coastal winds towards us, carrying with them the ghosts of millions.

"You finally know what we're dealing with now Civvie. Welcome to Shanghai." I recognised the voice as that of Corporal Cheng, Takumi's second-in-command who I rode alongside from the landing site. He was one of the squad that slept like a baby as we left that boy's burning body behind.

My mind couldn't quite comprehend what greeted my eyes. As far as I could see, the scale of ruination and chaos seemed impossible. The city had suffered more than a disaster. It was a reckoning of apocalyptic proportions. It seemed fantastical at first, like a biblical nightmare, but it was apparently nothing compared to the towering fires that raged the night it all began. The night the Gatekeeper fell from the sky and the demons emerged to claim whoever survived.

My eyes passed every empty street and hollow building; nothing stirred. I couldn't see any movement whatsoever. The city looked to be a dead carcass. Its citizens, its wealth and its industry consumed, stripped bare; leaving only the broken bones of memory. But the soldiers were soon quick to remind me that inside the honeycomb of shattered skyscrapers, nestled in those crumbling ruins, the dragons were lying in wait.

Despite all of the ageing memories of slaughter, the Wall was as silent as the grave: no shots were being fired, no radio chatter struggling to breathe above the noises of war. Even the soldiers themselves were whispering to each other, their weapons never outside of their arm's reach and their eyes constantly watching the dead city like living gargoyles.

No space was taken for granted either: emplaced weapons and troops lined the battlements for miles in both directions. As well as their rifles and light machine guns, the defenders were armed with some serious artillery. Sequentially positioned along the path were sixty calibre heavy machine guns as well as massive recoilless rifles, the infantryman's equivalent of a tank cannon. Based behind us on ground level were mortar emplacements, each one flanked by enough ammunition to decimate a battalion.

"Jesus." I muttered as my eyes scanned the arsenal.  
"I know," Takumi spoke as he guided me to an empty spot along the battlements. "In any other situation it'd be suicide to attack this position." He pulled out a pair of binoculars from a rucksack settled beside him and scanned into the distance. "But no matter how many times we push them back they just keep coming."

The conversation died as the Sergeant continued to observe the lifeless ruins before us. Meanwhile I took out my handheld camera and filmed everything I could see, any footage was better than no footage and the handheld allowed me a moderate level of zoom. From my viewpoint, the only movement I could see was dust being kicked up by the wind. It was eerily silent.

"How good is the zoom on that camera of yours?" Takumi asked as he checked his watch.

"Good enough. Why?" As the words left my mouth I could hear a constant, low rumble travelling behind us from the west. Second by second it grew and before I could turn to see the source it shot over us. The booming noise was near deafening at first, a resonating force that smacked against my body; it felt like my organs had just been punched by a ghost.

The ship screamed low across the skies over the city forcing huge dust clouds from its wake across the silent city. But that wasn't the movement that caught my eye.

"Zoom in as far into the interior as you can. Do it quickly!" Takumi ordered.

Through the dusty veil, dark silhouettes skirted across the streets on all fours with an inhuman speed. My eyes darted from street to street desperately, as I tried to capture a clear picture, but they were too fast. The dragons skittered into derelict buildings to take cover from the feigned threat. What was more alarming was that I couldn't begin to count their numbers.

"Section 8 is clear, go for prep." The sergeant said into his comm headset before rubbing the bridge of his nose. "We've got a few hours until nightfall to get ready, so if I was you I'd get some rest."

"What happens at nightfall?" I asked him as he rested his head against his rucksack before shutting his eyes.

"They're gonna make a try for us all. Always do the moment the sun goes down, just like clockwork. You won't be able to see them right now but trust me, they'e watching us. Some of them will be nestled somewhere safe and high watching the Wall, waiting patiently for the sun to disappear. Now do me a favour and give me some peace" he grumbled, his eyes still shut. Clearly wanting to be left alone I obliged. Whether he did get any sleep I wouldn't know. I couldn't imagine how anyone could sleep here.

There was no way in hell I could even think of rest. I tried once, leaning with my back to the city, watching the sun's slow descent towards the horizon beyond. Yet the constant tremoring throughout my body wouldn't leave me. I didn't know what to expect once the night came, but the anxiety that racked my body like a sickness. Constantly throwing predictive imaginings of my death at me. One after another, my tired mind was being smacked with jab after jab as if under assault by some psychic pugilist.

I couldn't sit around any longer and decided to walk along the Wall. Most of the soldiers I passed were wearing those same intimidating gas masks that the burners wore. I stopped occasionally to see if they'd answer any questions, but most of them brushed me away as if I was nothing more than an annoying insect. Thankfully though, a few did decide to talk to me.

Through each conversation I could see their eyes through the glass lenses shift towards the descending sun. It was as if they were watching the hourglass sands run low on their own survival. I found out that this was warranted: most of these soldiers were reinforcements, only a handful of survivors from the first nights remained.

I tried to broach the subject of the way the refugees were treated to the longest surviving soldiers I interviewed. Even fewer were willing to talk about that and those who did spoke with what seemed like a forced indifference. It wasn't that they didn't care, it was more like they couldn't afford to.

The first waves of civilians being processed through the quarantine were desperate, but still retained some sense of civilised behaviour. Helping their fellow man and obeying all orders given. The later waves though had survived where no one else should've. Clawing for survival by scraping by whatever supplies they could on their journey towards the Wall. Many hiding inside the desolate buildings for nights at a time as the creatures stalked the streets, waiting for daylight to make their desperate move towards the only salvation.

Stories of cannibalism weren't uncommon from inside the city and neither was murder within the pens for precious rations, now more valuable than any perceived virtue. The old and the young rarely endured their stay in the pens due to sickness and starvation, it truly was survival of the fittest.

Then I asked about the creatures, the attacks on the Wall. Every soldier when asked would physically shudder as their minds recalled the nights they had survived. They described black, skeletal dragons bigger than any man. Moving like lightning possessed, teeming hordes of teeth and claws.

They apparently had no fear of charging even directly into enemy fire. One soldier described the night they had breached the Wall at Section 7. The soldiers that were garrisoned there were forced to retreat into the buildings behind them and fight in close quarters as the surrounding area was firebombed clean. Reports from all sections had said that the moment section 7 was breached, the creatures diverted their attacks from all other areas of the Wall and flooded towards the breach.

What I noticed while interviewing all these soldiers was that the pens below me were deathly quiet. Gazing down I could see them in each enclosure, huddled near the front as a single figure walked among them, dressed in a long trench coat. One by one he passed each pen and a multitude of arms reached out to touch him, they cried out in a crazed joy as he reciprocated the gesture.

The soldier beside me said that this man was the 'Priest' Takumi had told me about earlier. Curiosity got the better of me and I rushed towards the nearest set of stairs, I wanted to get down there and talk to this mysterious individual.

A few minutes later I caught up to him and called out for his attention. Being this close to the pens, the smell was stifling but I was too focused for my stomach to make another effort to throw more bile out.

He turned to face me as I closed in. He was taller than most, with long, greasy dark hair thinning at the crown. Intense eyes stared into me from sunken sockets, his skin was taught around the bones of his face. He retracted his arms from the pen beside him, the lost souls inside protesting as he did.

"May I help you brother?" He asked politely with his hands clasped together.

"I wanted to talk to you. Ask you a couple questions if you could?" I was catching my breath, inhaling the foul air deep into the bottom of my lungs.

"Surely this must be a mistake for I have been speaking since this all began and only these chosen poor have listened." He raised his arm, gesturing towards all the pens.

"Why are you still here?" I asked, my camera trained on him, perfectly focused, the lighting just right.

"These masked heretics allow me my own will because I keep their bait docile. My reasons for staying are my own." He was about to turn away but I wanted more.

"Why do you call them heretics? These soldiers are the only thing keeping those things back."

He turned back, his brows tightening together. "They are simply delaying the inevitable. The angels are here and these pathetic cowards are delaying the ascension. Too afraid to accept their precious gift."

"Ascension?" I asked dubiously.

He began to smile, clearly enjoying the attention as I pursued him with questions. "Yes, the angels have chosen us to receive their seed so that we may join them. They will not stop until they have claimed the chosen and cut away the diseased wicked until they're nothing more than ravaged husks."

"You worship them." It wasn't a question. This one was clearly some sort of fanatic and it showed more for the desperation that resonated here that he was allowed to wander and preach this madness.

"And so should you but I can see that you haven't yet witnessed their magnificence. Don't worry you will. Now leave me to pray with these helpless vessels inquisitor. The sun is dying for today and the angels will be arriving soon." He was right: the street we resided in was flooded with shadow now. Sunset was closing fast.

He turned to walk away and for a second I saw an insignia on the shirt under his coat, it looked like a Weyland logo. "Wait! What is a Weyland employee doing here?"

He didn't turn to answer me and before I could press further a short burst of gunfire came from the battlements.

"Contact! They're moving!" the shooter screamed and it was as if someone had fired up an engine as the Wall came alive, the war machine had awoken. Troops amassed from the nearside buildings, making their way upwards to join their comrades. The adrenaline started to kick my heart into gear as I stood helpless among the throng of activity. I packed my camera back into my rucksack, activated my head cam and ran like the devil back towards Takumi's location.

A few minutes later I ran up the stairs, clearing three steps at a time until I reached the top. Instantly I was nearly thrown from the edge as soldiers marched with speed across my path. As I regained my footing a hand grabbed me, dragging me away from the highway of troops.

"Civvie get your fucking hind over here!" Cheng growled before throwing me against the parapet.

I didn't recognise him at first: everyone was now wearing those menacing gas masks. The impact forced the wind from my lungs but it was better than the fifty foot drop to the ground. Everyone around me was readying their personal weapons as well as the heavier, stationary guns. The air began to ring with the metallic percussion of rounds being chambered.

"Here put these in." Cheng handed me a pair of ear plugs and I stuck them in. They were the electronic ones that enhanced low volume sounds but neutralised the louder ones, clearly I was going to need them.

The sun behind us was diving towards the horizon at a slow but dread enducing speed, faintly searing us one last time with it's vermilion rays as the dying day slowly followed behind. Glancing over the parapet, the ruined towers of Shanghai were slowly consumed by shadow as dark clouds chased the light down like a dog on the hunt. Flashes of light appeared in the distance as a lightning storm bore down on the city from the sea.

Out on the killing field, resting on the moving precipice of shadow's hunt for all things light, an APC was sitting with the engine rumbling idle, with men running along a preordained line back towards the vehicle.

"What the hell are they doing out there?" I shouted but no one answered, they were too busy providing overwatch.

"You guys better hurry the fuck up, there's movement all over the buildings surrounding you!" Takumi shouted over his comms as the exposed soldiers sprinted their lungs to abandon gunning for the vehicle. Finally, after what seemed like an age they were inside the vehicle and the engine roared into life propelling it's obscene weight over the harsh terrain.

As the wheels began to roll, something leapt out of an open doorway; it was faster than a cheetah. As soon as it appeared, rounds were being sent down range towards it. But the gunners weren't fast enough. The beast leapt on the back of the vehicle, tearing off pieces of armour in a frenzied effort to reach the humans inside. Finally the rounds hammered home and its pitch black hide was pierced in multiple places. The creature died instantly but its claws were still embedded in the vehicle as it drove back.

"Open the gate! Burn the back!" Someone beside me screamed. I left the parapet to see the two tiered gate open, the vehicle rolled into the perimeter. Its rear section smoking and smouldering away as its occupants scrambled out, their lungs burning from the caustic fumes as the creature's blood poured inside.

As their coughing subsided everyone fell silent until all that could be heard was the cold, whistling wind carrying those ominous clouds over us. Slowly, I watched the sun sink below the horizon and in one last defiant flash it was gone. Night was here and the war for Earth was beginning anew.

The winds were shortly after accompanied by the spattering of rain, it was the shower we all desperately needed, to wash the clinging filth of death from us. Soon after I cursed it as it turned to an endless downpour. It was the only movement my eyes recognised. The soldiers around me were as still as statues, locked into firing positions. These damned gargoyles were waiting for the real storm. They all looked so still but if had looked any closer I would've seen that they were shaking in fear as much as I was.

For the next few minutes nothing stirred until an ear-splitting cry rang out from the city interior, roaring from the fanged mouths of death's army. As the quaking noise echoed through the debris-ridden streets, the pens behind us responded with a chorus of terrified shrieks. As their lungs emptied the wailing died down to a pitiful, continuous note of whimpers and a single voice spewed his madness to those desperate enough to listen. I listened, I was desperate. I was fucking trembling in complete terror.

"Do not be afraid my children! Our salvation is upon us. The angels are coming and immortality awaits those who are willing to go with a glad heart!" He shouted at the top of his lungs. His voice carrying an insane tone of triumph and relief.

"I'm getting fucking sick of that cunt." Takumi growled. I recognised his voice from the masked soldier behind me manning the sixty calibre machine gun. "Cheng!" He shouted only his name but the Corporal knew the order.

I watched as Cheng moved from his position and took aim at the Priest before firing off a single round. I squinted to see the round catch the fanatic in the leg. It merely wounded him, but it sent him scrambling for cover, silencing his maddened preaching. I didn't feel great about this fact, but the truth is I found that somewhat satisfying.

I turned my eyes back to the city and saw the enemy. At first it looked like a black tide of water, pouring over every obstacle in its path, squeezing through every gap. That was until the heavens above us unleashed their fury and arcs of white lightning hammered down all around. Each flash illuminated an infinite horde of swirling ebony, a mass of eyeless meat grinders moving as a singular hateful force towards us all. I probably would have pissed myself if I had any left in me.

Someone brushed against my back and I turned to see one man scrambling towards the stairs. But before he reached the first step, a shot impacted against his head. The back of his skull exploded with gore and his dead body tumbled down the stairs like a heavy sack.

"You better get down there Civvie, this is no place for you." Takumi said holding the smoking pistol before slamming it back in its holster to place his hands back on the machine gun.

"I'm staying!" The words came out my mouth before I could think. I told myself I must be fucking insane. I've had bullets miss me by inches but that was nothing compared to what could happen to me here. But these men and women had the courage to hold their ground. How did their lives hold less value than mine?

"Then stay close to me!" Just as he spoke I saw his eyes open wide behind the lenses as someone stepped behind me.

"Sir?" It was the captain, his immaculate uniform drenched, his medals for valour hidden underneath an armoured vest, his clean hands now clutching a loaded rifle.

"Sergeant." He responded as he reached the edge of the parapet, gazing down towards the coming tide of darkness. "They're throwing everything at us."

Something about all this felt final. The soldiers all knew something I didn't: every attack before this was merely a probe of the defences. These things weren't animals; there was a cunning intelligence behind their primal savagery.

"I don't know about all of you but I'm not willing to go with a glad heart just fucking yet, how about you?" Takumi screamed through the thunder drowning all other thought.

"No!" The troops beside him replied.

My heart was beating war drums in my ears as I heard Takumi driving the fear out of his comrades. I didn't know if it was helping them because the fear was closing in around me like a suffocating rope.

"I know you're afraid! I'm afraid! We're all gonna die one day, but it's what we do here tonight that really counts!"

The dragons were getting closer and closer, they were nearly clearing the nest of buildings into the killing fields. I continuously wiped rain water away from my eyes, my breathing coming in desperate heaves. I gripped the sodden creases of my trousers just to stop my hands from shaking.

"Hold this Wall until your last breath brothers and sisters! Let's greet death with a smile!" He continued, now screaming over the thundering stampede bearing down on the world. I could recognise individual forms. Thousands of jaws equipped with steel teeth, grinning a sinister smile. No fear, only hunger.

"Let's send these devils back to the hell they came from." He voice had lowered now to where only those closest could hear. A few seconds passed as the troops waited for something. Why the hell were they waiting? Another few agonisingly slow seconds came as I watched the first wave closing in. To kill, reap and plunder.

Then suddenly the ground beneath the creatures' vanguard burst into flame with a massive explosion that nearly deafened me. All along the front line an immense wall of fire erupted, sending the first charge of the beasts flying. The initial explosion was so powerful I could feel it in my ribs, like the roar of some primeval god. A roar that lasted long after it was uttered as the echo rumbled for miles.

"Fire!" Takumi shouted and the real thunder roared as thousands unleashed their weapons on the unseen enemy. Light nearly blinded me from all along the parapet from muzzle flashes of all calibres.

Behind me, the mortar teams began to dump shells into their tubes and the ordnance flew over all of us onto the monstrous enemy. One shell was a flare round that exploded in the sky, painting the surrounding area in a constant red light; the sun had returned, albeit briefly.

The assault on my senses was finalised by the disturbingly addictive scent of cordite as smoke trailed from every barrel. Slowly materialising into a thin cloud around all of us that stung my eyes as the hordes below were masked from my sight, but not their screams

Past the constant waves of gunfire I could hear the agonising screams of the dying creatures; they were falling by their hundreds. Then the recoilless rifles began unloading on the dragons, every shot fired sent tremors through the Wall that rumbled under my boots.

At that moment I foolishly thought the defenders were pushing the tide back, with the constant hail of rounds and the napalm trap it seemed like they had the upper hand. For a moment I forgot about the danger and thought of how the footage I was recording would look. No one would believe this, it was a nightmare to end all nightmares.

The constant barrage continued for what seemed like an age, yet it was only a handful of minutes. By the sounds of it the overlapping waves of suppressive fire were slowing down. Almost on cue, black figures braved the flames and leapt through the barrier.

"We need ammo!" Someone shouted to the rear. A few seconds later the reserve defenders ran across the battlements, dropping fresh magazines as they came by before going back down the stairs.

I felt useless enough just standing here, so I followed the others downstairs. I took one last glance at the Captain and Takumi. The Captain's rank didn't matter anymore, he was just another gun holding back the horrors. Everyone was equal in the face of impending death.

Running down the stairs, I leapt over the body of the deserter at the last few steps. I didn't feel pity for him, if anything he was just an obstacle. I caught up to the reservists quickly as they were busy burdening themselves with more ammo.

"You! Take these!" One of them shouted and before I knew it a crate filled with magazines was shoved into my hands. I wasn't unfit but the weight took me by surprise and the crate slumped down to the ground, dragging me down with it.

"Hurry the fuck up!" Another screamed at me as he ran past at full sprint with his cargo. I gritted my teeth as I lifted the weight and made my way back, albeit at a slower pace than the others.

I was too late for the lift as they left the ground level without me and so I ran straight up the stairs, fear and adrenaline overcoming any exhaustion that my thighs felt from the climb. Back on the parapet some soldiers were sitting with silent guns, the ground around them littered with empty magazines. I dropped a handful at each one and ran back for the stairs.

Glancing over the parapet I saw the wall of flame that carried on for at least a mile was beginning to thin out. The dragons and their hauntingly thin silhouettes leapt through the fire in their droves and were met with a vicious volley of rounds. But the fire was dying, the bodies of the devils began to pile on top of the flames, extinguishing them, creating gaps that the tide of onyx fiends then poured through.

Back down on the ground I followed the resupply teams back to the stockpile and gathered more ammo. There weren't enough hands to keep resupplying them at this rate but still we tried.

After two more runs I was getting the hang of it but with each trip up to the Wall I could see the tempest of monsters gain more ground as my legs grew ever more tired. My lungs were aflame. I stopped for a split second and realised that metre by metre they were getting closer.

On the next run as I began to leapfrog up the stairs, fear helping me fight through the fatigue. An impossible force crashed against the Wall. The raw power shook the whole structure causing me to lose my footing and fall to the ground. I hit my head and blacked out briefly as the screams began to come from the men on the parapets.

I couldn't have been out for longer than a minute or two. As I picked myself up, my head began to spin. I felt a warm stream of blood dripping from my brow. Before I regained my balance, something landed in front of me with a sickening crunch. Sending a resting puddle of rainwater splashing over me. It was one of the defenders, unrecognisable with their skull crushed and their intestines spilled out from a horrendous slash wound to the gut.

The armour was cleaved through like it was nothing more than soft clay and had offered about as much protection sadly. The only thought my mind registered was there was now one less set of hands manning a weapon.

Half in a daze, I picked up the ammo box and stumbled upstairs. Carnage and chaos greeted me at the top as I got my first close up look at the monsters that were now at the gates. Elongated, oil-sheened heads emerged from the ridge below us as teeth and skeletal claws grabbed and clawed at the soldiers. They acted not as individuals but as a single minded entity that plucked unlucky souls from the defenders' ranks. Savagely dragging them below.

In an effort to repel them the soldiers began using incinerators, shooting streams of ravenous liquid fire down at the creatures that hadn't already scaled the walls. It wasn't nearly enough to stop them all though.

Not any more than a few feet from me emerged a trio of the dragons as they scaled the parapet. Like living heat seeking missiles they closed in on fighting men, towering over them before they grabbed them. Snatching them away like they were little more than children. The soldiers screamed helplessly as the creatures carrying them crawled back, carrying their bounty over into the throng below.

"Civvie look out!" A voice screamed as something hammered into my sternum like a baseball bat, knocking me to the ground, driving the air from my lungs. My eyes then focused on a long tail of dark, segmented bone ending with a sickening barb that slowly retreated from my sight. An incinerator then clattered beside me as I saw the beast, standing tall in triumph over me. Some twisted sense of luck was with me at that moment as the thing from another plain of existence chose another helpless soul for its dooming embrace.

It was a woman behind the mask. She didn't scream so much as whimper helplessly as the slender, bony arm wrapped around her torso. But the thing's hunger wasn't sated. It still came for me.

"Burn it! Fucking burn it!" The voice screamed.

My palms, slick with sweat and rainwater scrambled for the flamer unit. And as I gained purchase on it's ridged handle I turned it towards the creature and that poor woman. I didn't even think of her in that moment; all I saw was my own death reflected in that eyeless dome, in those glistening fangs. I held down the trigger. Reflecting on it now I realise it would have been an act of mercy in the end. Being burned alive was infinitely preferable compared to the alternative. At least that's how I reasoned with it.

Searing hot flames ejected from the nozzle, my face kissed with residual heat as the beast and woman in front of me were engulfed in fire. It dropped her burning form as the creature squealed in agony, writhing downwards until it scrambled for the parapet, anything to escape the flames. It's movements were eerily as similar to those of human beings as it crawled backwards before pulling itself over the edge and dropping from view.

The woman was squirming on the ground, screaming out through the filters in her mask like a banshee as the flames licked away at her protective overalls. She tried to roll to extinguish them but she was heading straight for the edge behind us.

I didn't think: instantly I rushed towards her to try and stop her from falling. I was ignorant of the carnage around me, the violent and harsh song of war was overtaken by this girl's screams. If it wasn't for her I would've been the one in the creature's embrace.

An ear-piercing shriek came from beside me as another nightmare mounted the parapet to my right. It's determined gaze was locked onto me, its slick silver smile desiring my demise and worse. As it leapt over the ridge, a tongue shot out of the mouth ending with a smaller, more sickening mouth. I pulled the pistol out of my pocket and took aim at the living avatar of death.

I had some range experience, but with the vicious cocktail of fear and adrenaline my aim was off. The first two shots sailed past it harmlessly. I fired another three and they ricocheted off it's ribbed exoskeleton with an audible twang. It didn't appear to feel any pain and with a sinister grin it charged the last few feet towards me. I was dead.

Fire struck the beast from the left but it wasn't enough to stop its momentum, I moved to dodge it but I was nowhere near fast enough. A part of the beast careened into me like a bull and we both fell back towards the edge. My hands grasped for something, anything. I felt my body partly drop before my hands found purchase on the precipice as the dragon's burning body plummeted to the bottom.

I could hear it squirming in agony below me as someone stood above me, it was the Captain. My grip was slipping on the wet metal before he gripped my wrists tight, crying out in pain as he lifted my weight back up to safety. I could hear the gunfire below me as some of the reserve wave gunned down my attacker.

Back on solid ground the defenders were struggling to repel the creatures but they were only just holding. The captain screamed something inaudible into his comms and motioned the troops below to get up here.

The woman I tried to save was still trying to shift herself free of the last embers. We swiftly patted her down as that familiar rumble started to emanate from the skies above us. This time coming from the south and it was getting louder fast. The ship screamed over us, its exhaust leaving a dazzling white trail across the dark clouds, it's sonic boom was like a thousand thunder strikes.

"Everybody down!" The captain screamed before grabbing my head and forcing me down over the woman.

I couldn't see what happened next but the ship's sonic boom was nothing like what came next. It sounded as if the heavens came crashing down on the hordes to my left as a tectonic shock tore the earth in half. Overwhelming heat shot up over us and I could honestly feel the skin on one side of my face being burnt by the severe heat. I turned my head and opened my eyes to see a colossal torrent of fire swoop up past us and into the sky above the Wall.

As soon as it reached its peak, it died back down with thick, black smoke emerging from the ignition point, enwrapping us all in a dark haze. It was impossible to see but instantly the troops around me were back on their feet and the constant drone of raining lead began again. The captain picked me back up and forced my face to his.

"Get her to the hospital and stay there!" He shouted before picking up his rifle and joining his troops in the battle.

I slung the woman's arm over my neck and heaved her up to her feet. She was in a bad way: her weight rested almost entirely on my shoulders but she still had the determination and presence of mind to pick up her weapon. The muzzle scraped against the floor as we slowly moved to the stairs.

When we reached the beginning of the stairs, I looked around frantically for Takumi. I didn't know what I was doing, the man probably couldn't care less about me, but still I looked to see if he was alive.

It was impossible to recognize anyone underneath all the gas masks. But someone was manning the machine gun where I last saw him, so I hoped it was still him and not the body beside the gunner. Whoever it was had been pulled halfway over the edge of the parapet. Their spine snapped at a sickening angle, their abdomen ripped open, exposing ribs that protruded out to the sky above like outstretched arms.

Getting my charge down the stairs was more difficult than it seemed before-hand and by the time we reached the bottom my body screamed at me to release the burden. To drop her and run. I was ashamed that the thought tempted me but still I pushed on. My clothes were saturated, clinging to my body as I struggled to blink away the constant onslaught of rain from my eyes.

We passed the ruined APC and the dead dragon that nearly killed me. Its blood had melted the concrete around it, carrying most of its body to the depths, but the elongated head remained. Even in death those horrendous teeth smiled a promise of pain to me, its eyeless gaze following me as I staggered to the hospital.

I nearly collapsed as we reached the entrance, her desperate gasps for breath near screaming in my ear through the thick filter. She was hyperventilating.

"David." She panted. How did she know my name?

We both crashed against the wall beside the entrance. Her body sagging down as I desperately tried to pry the mask off with weak, trembling fingers. I pulled it off harshly, pulling away sweat-sodden hair. I recognised her, the woman from the pyre. Before she looked so cold, so formidable. A lightning strike illuminated someone lost. Like a wild-eyed animal, ready to run until her heart collapsed or fight, clawing and biting till her heart exploded.

She was looking up to the battlements, her eyes wide with fear. An endless stream of white light lined the top of the wall. A beam of continuous muzzle flash that travelled for miles reflected off the raindrops. In retrospect it could've been a beautiful sight in silence, but the deafening sounds of gunfire and screams drove out all but the most essential thoughts.

The battle over the disputed barricade between life and death was being fought, it was complete chaos as the beasts had pushed their way forward and began scaling the Wall once more. Another lightning strike cracked the sky behind us, illuminating a sleek, ethereal figure that was climbing down the smooth surface.

It moved like a cross between a spider and a snake, the perfect stalker. In amongst all the frenzied fighting this singular invader had breached the defences where its kin had died in their thousands. It seemed impossible, how had no one seen it?

My blood and my body froze as it descended to the ground and yet nobody had moved to destroy it. The refugee pens were between us and the dragon and they certainly saw it, screeching cries met its arrival as it stood up tall in its victory. It was staring right at me and it walked forward.

The rain seemed to melt into its body as it advanced, ignoring the helpless civilians inside the pens as it drew past them. Its tail swaying and curling from side to side in anticipation. Clawed feet descending to the floor in perfect balance, advancing silently.

I was ready to run, my brain sending a barrage of signals for my legs to move but still I stared, hauntingly mesmerised. I felt like I was trapped in a suicidal trance until the gunshot sounded beside me, like a track runner it hurled me into focus.

The round screamed down range only to skirt off the side of its carapace, leaving a fresh scar that dripped bleeding suffering onto the concrete beside it. An instant later the woman beside me pulled the trigger again only to hear that horrifying dry click, her weapon was dry.

We didn't think. Instantly she was up beside me and with her arm around me we practically threw ourselves through the hospital entrance. We didn't look back, looking back was most assuredly death as that guttural cry chased us down. Its feet now pounded the concrete behind us, the sound resonating in my ears louder than any gunshot or explosion. Every step I was hoping, praying that somebody would kill it or drive it off our tail.

The reception was empty and further as we continued staggered until bursting into an occupied ward. Nobody batted an eyelid at first, they all had just assumed I was carrying in a casualty. I damn myself in retrospect for bringing along something else. What else was I meant to do?

"There's one here!" I screamed. "Right behind us!" I didn't stop, I just kept going. Everyone moved at once in a desperate struggle to gain ground away from the threat of my words. The one's that could anyway. Some who were too injured or amputees struggled and flailed in their beds in sheer, blind panic. I was sorry, sorry to all these brave souls who deserved more than what was coming.

There were no weapons in sight, anyone who could fight was out there, stemming the tide. I tried my best to weave my way through all the fleeing injured but we were both knocked down, hammering against the cold floor. Then it came.

It didn't run or burst through the door, instead the dark figure emerged slowly, pushing the doors aside with its body, inch by painful inch. I scrambled backwards on my heels and elbows as the creature paused to realize the feast it had entered into. And feast it did.

Behind me the crowd struggled to funnel through the other exit of the ward. A river trying to force its way through a thimble to survival. The creature stalked casually towards its first victim, a double amputee who collapsed from his bed and crawled towards us in desperation. Every breath to fuel his muscles was a wailing whimper until it leapt upon him, tearing into him with a tireless savagery as blood flew in every direction.

My newfound comrade grabbed me by the back of my shirt, hauling me up as the bloodletting continued, as the fox continued to devour the helpless chickens.

In front of us the crowd had escaped, neither thinking nor caring for their brethren being slaughtered helplessly by the emissary of death. I couldn't blame them, I felt the exact same disregard as we ran for our lives. One by one as we ran the screams were snuffed out like candles.

The last scream echoed through the corridors as we passed those too weak or too injured to keep up the pace. The wraith's hunger and cruelty couldn't be sated, I risked a glance back and saw it peeking out the ward's exit. Its maw saturated with fresh blood, the blood clinging to it like a liquid skin that dripped to the ground in thick slimy strands. My heart was hammering in my ears but I could still hear its raspy breaths.

My companion started to lag behind, her burst of terror-stricken energy near depleted.

"Fucking move!" I cried, grabbing her arm and pulling her along with me as I ran.

A hissing screech sounded, followed by thunderous steps that shouldn't be possible by something that moved with such serpentine agility. We were safe though, we weren't the target for its otherworldly desire. For the moment at least.

I would've guided us to an exit out of here if only I knew where one was. The idea of wandering around this floor blindly looking for an exit while that thing was on the loose was sheer suicide. Our only option was to find the stairs, go up and hide until help came.

By the time we reached the third floor, the inside of the hospital had become eerily quiet and I wondered if everyone inside was dead already. That was fear talking, I told myself, we weren't alone but never had I felt so isolated in my entire life, even with my companion beside me.

The sounds of the siege outside never ceased, a symphony of death and destruction playing in the background as we moved on down the still hall, our feet moving as quietly as our depleted bodies would allow. Echoing from the stairs behind us a deep growl emerged, accompanied by encroaching steps, it was our turn with the fiend now.

I didn't know where to hide, every room we passed was a locked admin office, walled with clear glass, the shadows inside mercifully still. Then at the end of the corridor I saw a room I remembered, the Captain's quarters!

"There." I pointed. "C'mon." I was whispering as quietly as I could but still I felt like I was screaming our position away to something that's only purpose in life was to take other lives.

We made our way inside the office, moving as quietly as cats. Crossing the precipice into some false sense of safety I felt like I could finally breathe. Yet just as I gently closed the door I saw the massive figure creep up the stairwell at the end of the expansive hallway. Sickening hands clasped the walls around it as the creature moved its massive head, seeking its next victim.

I sneaked behind the desk next to my companion, she was collapsed against the table, her chest rising and descending in short bursts. I collapsed alongside her, defeated. It must have been clear as day on my face when she looked to me.

I could see in her eyes that some insane, hopeful part of her mind thought we were safe. Then the beast hissed and its pounding footsteps drew closer and closer. There was nowhere else to go, we were trapped. At that moment I remembered the gun jammed inside my pocket.

I pulled it out and both of us just stared at it in a twisted appreciation. I came here desperate for a story and now I was just desperate to feel the kiss of another sunrise on my face. To forget this hellish nightmare, erase the memory of this wretched netherworld from my existence. The escape from all this suffering and death was only a trigger pull away.

We both wordlessly asked the same question, how would we do it. Would one be brave enough to kill the other then themselves? I didn't even know this woman's name and yet we were sharing this twisted final intimacy. She made the decision for me and wrenched the pistol from my hands.

"I don't even know your name." I whimpered, the tears were flowing freely and I didn't feel ashamed. I was still terrified, of the beast stalking us, of death but strangely I felt relief.

"Ying." She whispered.

The door burst open as something massive crunched on top of the desk we were resting beside. Instantly we scrambled away like frightened animals, looking back to see our scourge, our ruin, the end of our time.

It crouched low, poised like an unsprung coil, ready to leap and annihilate. Thick globs of oil mixed with blood leaked from its open jaws as hot, steamy breath emerged. It exhaled rotten decay and emanated torment. The long, menacing tail lay against the floor like a heavy steel chain, grinding against the floor as it quivered in anticipation.

We fled to the balcony without thought to our plan of a painless death. It's proximity killed all forethought and left only the most basic of instincts, fight or flight. Now outside the sounds of the still raging siege powered over any noises the three of us made. This was an isolated battle, a private massacre.

I looked to Ying, desperately I screamed. "Do it!"

She didn't have a chance, as soon as she lifted the gun to my direction it bore down on her. But the devil wouldn't make it quick, no it wanted to savour the terror, to drink it like sweet nectar. It gripped her by the torso, so tightly that she couldn't breathe or scream, lifting her off her feet as it snarled into her face.

Where my instincts screamed flight to me like a mantra, Ying was a warrior, she had faced the hordes, the rushing tides of everlasting night. Like every man and woman manning that damned wall, she made the hard choice, she did what was necessary, she would die fighting.

As the beast smiled, opening its mouth to protrude that horrible inner jaw she jammed the pistol inside its mouth and fired. She only had time for three shots before the dragon vomited its acidic blood. Spraying her all over as it threw her away in depserate agony to land by my side. She'd delivered the fatal blow, the beast spun around once before collapsing. In its death throes it lashed out in all directions with everything it had in some final effort to maim and kill.

The tail smashed into the floor behind me, the barb digging deep into the concrete before it withdrew, dragging the blade across my face. Pain exploded on the left side of my head and I thought my eye was gone. I screamed out in anguish as it drew its last horrid breath and died.

I realised I could open my left eye a few seconds later, blood constantly pouring down from the wound fast as I could blink it away. I watched the acidic blood pool around the nightmarish corpse and melt through the floor until eventually it slipped through and away from sight. Crashing into the street below.

None of it mattered, this hollow victory, this delaying of the inevitable. As I watched my saviour's body melt into nothingness the war still screamed on in the distance. I wept uncontrollably. All this death, all this self-sacrifice didn't matter. The flood showed no signs of ending, the screaming never stopped.

I didn't know how long I laid there, lost in exhaustion and despair, no story was worth this, nothing was worth this. The guns were still firing, the rain still falling just like my ceaseless tears. No one came for us, the only change was Ying's body melting out of existence. She deserved better. If the gun was still here perhaps I would've still turned it on myself, I couldn't survive another night of this cutting sorrow.

Eventually the lightning ceased, the heavens stopped crying and the darkness above us started to die. Sunrise was coming and so was something else.

It announced its arrival like a vengeful god, pouring explosive ordnance down upon the wicked plague. I could feel the explosions vibrate the entire building like a steady heartbeat. It was relentless and it turned the tide for one more sunrise. Eventually the constant weapons fire from the battlements began to fade until once more it was as silent as yesterday.

I heard something come after but I couldn't quite believe it. Eventually it got the better of my despair and I pulled the ear plugs out. I could hear it clearly now and I still didn't believe it. People were cheering. It was such an alien sound, filled with relief and hope.

I couldn't see the source from this side of the building. Walking back through the hospital once more it was deserted. Apart from the dead who littered the floor, all ripped and torn beyond recognition. I couldn't look down, I led that thing here, dragged it in like a stray dog. It was survivor's guilt but I didn't know it at the time. Nothing would rid me of the shame but I couldn't stay on that balcony any longer.

Exiting the building, the sky was beginning to brighten, the cold black replaced by a comforting saffron that stained the dispersing clouds above us all. Atop the Wall was the aftermath, bodies were everywhere, sharing the floor with spent magazines in the thousands and blood from both sides.

The atmosphere was one of victory, a powerful aura that infected most of the survivors, the cause of it floated high above the shattered city. A black obelisk looming in silence with destructive intent. The single starship Takumi hoped for.

"You survived the night." It wasn't the voice I was hoping for. It was the Captain. He looked like he was standing on sheer willpower alone, his clothes were ruined beyond repair, painted anew with blood.

"Sergeant Takumi?" I asked though part of me already knew the answer.

The Captain was good enough to walk me to the body. Slumped to the side of the machine gun emplacement he had held all night. The end of one of those sickening tails speared directly into his chest through the body armour, pinning him against the ammo box behind him.

"He held this section most of the night." The Captain said with a mournful pride. "He was the real leader here, not me. He was the man we rallied behind when it seemed like we were lost."

The Captain helped me lay out his body, wrenching the barb out of his chest before tossing it over the parapet. Taking off the gas mask to see a man at rest, it was a necessary act of decency that hadn't been seen here since it all began.

"I wish it was me that died instead of him." The Captain said with genuine sorrow. "History may not remember him but we all will."

Screeching sounds came from the sky and we looked to see the warship spitting out a flight of personnel carriers, each one flying to different sections of the Wall. There couldn't have been any more than twenty but everyone cheered like it was an entire fleet.

The sun finally had breached the horizon, its glorious heat piercing every one of us who thought we'd never see its beauty again. The ship above us was also illuminated as light streaked across a Colonial Marine Destroyer, with a raven painted across the rear.

"Is that what I think it is?" I asked disbelieving my squinting eyes.

"It is. The traitors have come home." He said as a single ship emerged late and flew straight down into the city interior.

Most soldiers knew exactly what that ship was and who flew her. I didn't know it then but I'd grow to call these Reapers family, sharing this harsh and brutal journey with them as they rode out the apocalypse.

This siege was merely the beginning. The seed had already been planted in our home world and we had let it flower here in this doomed metropolis. Like a cancer it would spread across continents, bringing forth pestilence, agony and destruction until our home was turned into nothing more than memory and ashes.


End file.
